Anyone grow rosemary?

[Grub]

The younger they are, the better they root.

Nope, I won't go there.

[akgardengirl]

That's right Grub! Here is Worth's rosemary growing in Alaska. He was way cool to hand deliver to Alaska several varieties of Texan rosemary. The ones that made it are:
top left: Foresteri and Tuscan Blue
bottom left: Hill Hardy, Spice Island (my own wintered over rosemary), Gorizia

Thanks again Worth. I love the smell of these plants.
Sue

[Grub]

Kewl.

Actually, I didn't know there were so many different rosemaries, so I have learnt something... I use a lot of the stuff and still can't keep the plant at bay...but love it.

[Worth1]

You guys should have seen Sue jump in her car and get the devil out of there after I handed her the rosemary in ziplock bags.

I started handing her these bags with green stuff in them and she was looking around an every body was looking at us.

I new every body at the airport that saw us but she didnt.
I get to see these guys once a month when we go to work.

Thanks for the good word Sue, I think you are cool too.
And thanks for the cookies too.
If there is anything you want from Texas just say the word,

Worth

[korney19]

Sorry I'm late!

Something not often seen in my neck of the woods--rosemary flowering...

[akgardengirl]

I hope mine will flower next season. They are safe indoors now but instead of having freezing temps, it's been in the high 30's. The plants are the starts Worth brought up from Texas and they are very healthy/bushy. Your plant(s) look real good. They look like white flowers, are they?
Sue

[korney19]

Actually, that plant is long gone. I overwintered it indoors and in the 2nd year it flowered while outdoors. They were a really pale light blue I'd say, pretty close to white but just enough to tell. I forgot what happened to it. They start getting funky indoors... like a white mold. And needles/leaves fall off. I think I might have just forgot to bring it in, or I brought in into the basement & forgot about it. I bought it as a 3-4" potted seedling about 6" tall and in the 2nd year it was about 30" tall and 18" wide. I tried taking cuttings to grow over the winter indoors but they got that funk and then lost most leaves and I gave up on them. Results from seeds are even worse, they have very poor germination, even the freshest seeds.

I'll buy another transplant in the spring. I had one from a supermarket on a southern windowsill but my mother has dementia & Alzheimers and she drowned it watering it to many times in a day, every day!

Mark

[Suze]

I put in a couple of rosemary plants this year (Tuscan Blue - the blooms on these can be gorgeous), but they took a hard hit because of all the torrential rains and don't look like much. For the longest time, I thought they were going to die, but they are still alive.

It was a tough year here for drought tolerant plants, even in my supposedly free draining sandy soil. Part of the problem for me is that several of the things in my ornamental/herb beds were new plantings. I suspect if the plants had been more established, they would have done better. Lost my Mexican Oregano, a 'shrub' (in my climate) which I've always wanted to grow because of the pretty blooms. Also lost a couple of salvias. But I digress.

[akgardengirl]

My assortment developed that white, weird stuff also but Safer soap took care of it. A friend gave me 3 bottles of it so I decided to try it on the rosemary and it worked. They do dry out really fast indoors so maybe your Mom noticed that too and was trying to save them.
Sue

[dice]

I have one growing indoors in a pot in soil that is mostly
garnet sand-blasting grit. It dries out so fast that it is
difficult to overwater it. It grew outside last year,
overwintered inside, and then I never got around to
moving it back outside this year.

Does ok in a south window, although it is a little
sparse looking, and it never has flowered. I pinch
a foot or so off of it when I need some rosemary
for a soup or similar.

It has a twin that overwintered outside last year
in a bed close to the house that drains really well.
I piled up 6 inches of loose leaves, teabags, and
so on around it last fall, and I covered the ground
in that bed with green fir branches when the temperature dropped into the 20s. It survived. That one never has
flowered, either.(?)

[Worth1]

Dice
Rosemary grows next years flower buds this year, if you cut off all of the new growth then you cut off all of the flowers.

Worth

[gardenpaws_VA]

Korney and AKgardengirl, I suspect your rosemary had one of the mildews. The standard baking soda spray works well on rosemary in such situations, more so because rosemary prefers sweet to acid soil.

Yes, the easiest way to kill a rosemary is to drown it, and I've drowned my share (especially those cute but rootbound Christmas trees!).

Re age of material for cuttings, I actually prefer to use woody growth, and either pull it off (for a heel cutting) or cut it below where I see the little nubbins on the stem - those are root initials, and will extend quite promptly if you put the cutting in moist perlite/vermiculite mix, or even in a glass of water. The more important factor for me is time of year. Here in the N Hemisphere (VA), rosemary just sits and sneers at me until after New Years - seems to need a certain day length before roots will grow.

Worth, if you haven't already seen it, check out The Big Book of Herbs by Arthur Tucker and Tom DeBaggio (and also DeBaggio's Nursery). It sounds like the worst sort of coffee table book, but these are professionals (one university botanist, one grower/collector/breeder) and this book gives more detail than I have seen anywhere else on different rosemary cultivars and synonyms (also does the same for lavender, basils, scented pelargoniums, etc).

[Worth1]

I’ll have to check out The Big Book of Herbs, I have a big Coffee table, I could curl up on it and sleep. (With a cat)

I once ran across the big book of knots for about $55.00 and didn’t get it, I wish I had.
The thing showed how to weave nets. (I need to know how to weave nets.)

Worth

[gardenhappy]

yes, grill the rosemary,i love rosemary and use it for everthing in the tub ,for sore body,tired feet with peppermint,in cooking,baking,ROSEMARY,ROSEMARY!!! Is there a better scent?? No. Means friendship and fidelity,every bride years ago would not get married with out a sprig,it did not bloom before baby Jesus and then when Mary changed his diapers on the run and hung then on a rosemary bush it burst into fragrent blooms!!!!
Happy Holidays everyone!!!!!!!

[fourtgn]

I know this thread has been around for several months, but I had to say that I love Rosemary, too! I love baked lamb chops with olive oil, sea salt, and fresh rosemary on it. I also like to put sprigs of fresh rosemary on my grill when I BBQ. Just love the stuff. My mother used to put it dried in our pizza sauce and I wasn't too thrilled with the dried-out twiggy feel, but I love the same recipe made with fresh leaves.

Gotta love it!

I didn't know how many varieties there were, either. I guess I shouldn't be surprised after learning a bit about heirlooms tomatoes, though.

Lenn