Anyone grow rosemary?

[Fert1]

I set out a Rosemary plant several years ago. Don't know the variety. I'm not sure if the original plant even listed a variety, but I set the thing out and forgot about it. It's now a rather large bush. I've never watered, fertilized or otherwise tended it in any way. That's my kind of plant. Just set it out, and let it go. I've done the same with sage, oregano and several mint varieties. They are all threatening to take over my yard now, but that's okay. I have a very nice smelling yard.

[jenn_sc]

I love Rosemary too, but a little goes a long way! We only cook with it every once in a while, but I love to brush my hands over the plant every time I walk outside. The fragrance is SO nice!

I decided this year that I needed to harvest and save more of my herbs. Here is what I did with the Rosemary: I picked and chopped up a few handfuls of the leaves, added a couple of cloves of minced garlic, and then mixed it up with softened butter. I rolled the butter into a log, wrapped it in wax paper, and chilled for an hour. Then, when it was hard, I sliced it into little "coins" and stored them in a ziploc baggie in the freezer. Now we'll have Rosemary-garlic butter pats to use on potatoes and stuff through the winter!

Jennifer

[Worth1]

Here are some of the rosemary varieties I have found so far.
Some of the information is contradicting from what I have found elsewhere but you know how that is.
I will keep looking and update as needed or you all can do the same if you wish.
I will also put in the average height next to the growth habit section when I find it.

Rosemary, Arp, (Rosmarinus officinalis)
Zones: 7-10 (very hardy H1)
Flowers: pale blue, summer
Growth Habit: upright
Other: green-gray foliage
Uses: ornamental and culinary, popular bonsai subject

Rosemary, Benenden Blue (Rosmarinus officinalis 'Benenden Blue')
Zones: 8-10
Flowers: blue, midsummer
Growth Habit: upright
Other: dark green foliage, bred for deep blue flowers
Uses: ornamental and culinary

Rosemary, Blue Lady (Rosmarinus officinalis 'Blue Lady')
Zones: 8-10
Flowers: blue-violet, summer
Growth Habit: twisted
Other: very narrow leaves, very needle-like. (Popular Bonsai subject)
Uses: ornamental and culinary

Rosemary, Blue Spires (Rosmarinus officinalis 'Blue Spires')
Zones: 8-10
Flowers: Bright blue flowers on tall upright stems
Growth Habit: creeper
Other: specially developed for visual and olfactory appeal.
Uses: *very* ornamental and yet still culinary

Rosemary, Collingwood Ingram (Rosmarinus officinalis 'Collingwood Ingram')
Zones: 8-10
Flowers: blue, summer
Growth Habit: creeper
Other: highly fragrant, bright green foliage
Uses: ornamental and culinary

Rosemary, Foresteri (Rosmarinus officinalis 'Foresteri')
Zones: 8-10
Flowers: blue, summer
Growth Habit: upright
Other: especially drought resistant
Uses: ornamental and culinary

Rosemary, Girardus (Rosmarinus officinalis 'Girardus')
Zones: 8-10
Flowers: blue, summer
Growth Habit: upright
Other: very, very dense foliage
Uses: culinary (Very rare in U.S. of A.)

Rosemary, Golden Rain (Rosmarinus officinalis 'Joyce de Baggio')
Zones: 8-10
Flowers: blue, summer
Growth Habit: upright
Other: variegated (yellow on foliage edges) increasing variegation with age.
Uses: ornamental and culinary

Rosemary, Gorizia (Rosmarinus officinalis 'Gorizia')
Zones: 8-10
Flowers: blue, summer
Growth Habit: upright (larger then most)
Other: densely packed branches of dark green needles, fragrant
Uses: ornamental and culinary

Rosemary, Hill Hardy (Rosmarinus officinalis 'Hill Hardy')
Zones: 7-10 (very hardy Gloxinia)
Flowers: blue, summer
Growth Habit: upright
Other: needlelike foliage, fragrant
Uses: ornamental and culinary

Rosemary, Kenneth's Prostrate (Rosmarinus officinalis 'Kenneth's Prostrate')
Zones: 8-10
Flowers: blue, late summer and early fall
Growth Habit: creeper
Other: fast grower
Uses: ornamental and culinary

Rosemary, Lockwood de Forest (Rosmarinus officinalis var. angustifolius 'Lockwood de Forest')
Zones: 8-10
Flowers: lavender blue, summer
Growth Habit: creeper
Other: dark green foliage
Uses: ornamental and culinary

Rosemary, Logee's Blue (Rosmarinus officinalis 'Logee's Blue')
Zones: 8-10
Flowers: Blue, summer
Growth Habit: upright
Other: bluish green foliage, smaller Ogee's.
Uses: ornamental and culinary

Rosemary, Miss Jessup (Rosmarinus officinalis 'Miss Jessup')
Zones: 8-10
Flowers: Blue
Growth Habit: upright
Other: bred especially for flowering
Uses: ornamental and culinary

Rosemary, Mrs. Howard's Creeping (Rosmarinus officinalis'Mrs. Howard's Creeping')
Zones: 8-10
Flowers: small blue, mid to late summer
Growth Habit: creeper
Other: fast grower
Uses: ornamental and culinary

Rosemary, Pine-Scented (Rosmarinus officinalis 'Pine-Scented')
Zones: 8-10
Flowers: Blue, summer
Growth Habit: upright, feathery needle-leaves
Other: grown as miniature Christmas Tree, leaves have pine fragrance.
Uses: ornamental and culinary

Rosemary, Rex (Rosmarinus officinalis 'Rex')
Zones: 8-10
Flowers: Blue, summer
Growth Habit: upright
Other: dark green foliage
Uses: ornamental and culinary

Rosemary, Santa Barbara (Rosmarinus officinalis 'Santa Barbara')
Zones: 8-10
Flowers: Blue, summer
Growth Habit: upright
Other: drought resistant
Uses: ornamental and culinary

Rosemary, Severn Sea (Rosmarinus officinalis 'Severn Sea')
Zones: 8-10
Flowers: Violet-blue
Growth Habit: upright
Other: ornamental and culinary

Rosemary, Spanish (Rosmarinus officinalis 'Majorca')
Zones: 8-10
Flowers: Pink, throughout summer.
Growth Habit: upright
Other: very needlelike leaves (popular bonsai subject)
Uses: ornamental and culinary

Rosemary, Tuscan Blue (Rosmarinus officinalis 'Tuscan Blue')
Zones: 8-10
Flowers: Blue, mid spring to late summer
Growth Habit: upright
Other: extremely fragrant, bred especially for dense flowering.
Uses: ornamental and culinary

Rosemary, White-Flowered (Rosmarinus officinalis 'White-Flowered')
Zones: 8-10
Flowers: White
Growth Habit: upright
Other: extremely fragrant
Uses: ornamental and culinary

[shelleybean]

Thanks, Worth. Very interesting. I've grown variteties that bloom with blue, pink and white flowers but I had no idea the pink and white were so much more rare than the blue. I'm not sure of specific varieties. Some were trailing and some were upright. The only one I have at this time is blooming blue right now and it's an upright type. I didn't see any fall bloomers in your list but we keep flip flopping between 50 and 75 degree days here.

I feel much the same as Jennifer in that it's a very strongly flavored herb and a little goes a long way. I also love to run my hands through it and appreciate the smell. I think, by the way, that freezing it in a compound butter is a fantastic idea. To me, dried rosemary is like eating dried up needles from a Christmas tree. Sharp, painful and kind of musty. Adding the butter softens it up a bit.

[Worth1]

Hi Michele, and your welcome

With 50 plants growing very well at this time and planning on about maybe 500 more, ‘no joke, I don’t think I will ever eat another dried rosemary again.
I’m going to try and have all of the varieties; I can find and grow them here.
Sounds strange I know but wait till all of them are in full bloom.

So far just about everything I have planted here is edible, medicinal or both.

Worth

[Worth1]

I just got back from town and came home with 21 more rosemary plants.
20 are of the prostrate type and they will go in window box’s so they will spill out and down with plenty of beautiful blue blooms.
I put a hundred miles on the truck to get these things the first place I went to was out of business closed for good the second place I went to the same thing I almost cried.
Howard’s Nursery had been in business for a very long time I drove up and it was a clothing shop.
So I ended up in George Town and had to go to a phone book to see where the nurseries were.
The one I did business with there years ago was you guessed it closed down, gone.
I only planed on getting one or two plants but after all of that I needed a plant fix bad, depressed I was.
So I got 21.
PURRRRRR PURRRRRRRR PURRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!

Worth

[Worth1]

After my last visit here I planted one of the rosemary plants I had purchased.
While planting I managed to break off a stem about 10 inches long.
Upon doing so I decided to try and root the thing so I trimmed off a little of the smaller growth shoots from the bottom and put it in a potting mixture.
I lined the pot with plastic wrap so the water wouldn’t drain away and left the thing inside in a window.
Then my wife put the thing outside and it went through the ice storm and other bad weather we had.
After coming home I fully expected to find the little feller dead but to my surprise I found it doing great.
So I removed the plant from the soil and found that it had put on 2 inch roots all over the Woody portion of the stem.

This is great news to me as I want to start propagating more rosemary and at the going rate I will be able to save 100s of dollars on plants.

So in my time home I will try and start about 200 or so more plants.
I know this is how it’s done but it is the first time I have done it with rosemary.

All other plants including the French lavender made it through the freeze just fine.

Worth

[sirtanon]

Ah, so it's that easy to grow rosemary from cuttings? I was wondering myself it it could be done, and now that I know this, I've got some cuttings to make

[akgardengirl]

Is anyones outdoor rosemary in bloom? I was looking at Worth's million varieties of rosemarys and see that my one and only plant that I wintered over is one that he doesn't have..."Spice Island". It does say on the tag that it may not be as hardy as "Arp" or "Hill Hardy" but nothing is hardy here in the winter.
Sue

[Worth1]

Darn you Sue, just as I was going to the store to buy 1/2 “conduit for tomato stakes.

None of the rosemary should be in bloom at this time. (In Texas)
The new growth that it puts on in the summer is where the young buds for blooms form.
Then in the early fall on to the early spring the blooms will come out. (Depending on the variety and growing conditions)
Thus said if you cut the new growth from said plant during the spring and summer you will have a bloomless plant.

And no I don’t have a million varieties here at home, and I think that some of them are the same but I can’t prove it.

With the wild sunlight swings in Alaska I have no idea how the plant will react to it and how it will effect the bloom cycle.
I can tell (as you know) to the rest of the folks here that the July 4th fireworks display is a rather boring thing in Alaska due to the sun being up at 12 midnight.

I have been thinking about how you will over winter the plants inside as the sun is more or less non existent in Anchorage in the winter.
The best I have come up with is for the month or two of almost total darkness you have you will have to use lights and or put them in a window.

With that said does the sun just circle the horizon in the summer and just barely peak out in the winter. Like it does above the Arctic Circle where I work?

Some of the rosemary I have is hardy down to 0 degrees I think, ‘I will have to look, but even then as you well know with wild swings in temperatures in Alaska during the spring you never know for sure.

I had and inch of snow on my shoulder at the slope in July last year; it almost always snows in July there for some odd reason.

Further more as for the cuttings that I will bring you do as Granny said.
I forgo the rooting powder because I always forget to buy it but other wise just do as she said.
Make sure you keep the soil moist until they have grown roots.
Then when they have some root growth cut back on the water.
You can over water rosemary very easy and you should let it dry out some before the next watering. (Make sure you have a hole in the bottom of the container.)

In a large container here in Texas I had to water Fred the rosemary plant, (Yes I have it named) lets see I think it was a gallon of water every 3 days, ‘it is that hot here.

It is easy to tell if you over water the leaves will not look dried out but will turn yellow.
Rosemary is very susceptible to root rot so any over watering should be avoided at all costs.
I like to treat the plant as it would live in the environment it has evolved in.
A lot of water and then a dry spell just like here in Texas or the Mediterranean it lives in.

The only difference is that I water the plants in the summer so they don’t dry up for a faster growing and healthier plant.

If the plant is under watered the leaves will look green but will start to corkscrew and dry up soon there after the branch will turn brown and fall off. (Well I pick it off)

On a large plant the plant will sacrifice a branch at a time to dry up until the next rain.
Sounds weird but I have seen it happen many times.

One last note and you have to heed this warning, never use a strong nitrogen fertilizer on rosemary it will burn every time.
I have found compost or those plant sticks to work very well for me.8)

Folks will say that it grows in sorry soil but it will thrive in a good well drained soil with small amounts of organic nutrients in it.

Good lord I could go on forever about desert and drought tolerant plants as they are my favorite (and very colorful) as it should be here in Texas. (To conserve water of course)

Any time

Now to the store to by conduit for the tomato monsters before they get out of hand!!!

Worth

[akgardengirl]

It seems that my rosemary gets blooms around the same time as yours do Worth. I plant in a sandy medium, in containers, only water when dry and make sure that they are in the sunniest location in the yard. This plant I wintered over is one purchased last May and just brought in when the temp. got chilly. I am sure that those Texan rosemarys will do just fine with all this daylight. Thanks for the indepth care instructions which I printed out. Granny, I will root according to your instructions.
Thanks,
Sue B.

[akgardengirl]

Update on your rosemary Worth. Most of the smaller, tender ones seem to be doing okay. The bigger, woodier ones didn't root and turned brown.The younger they are, the better they root.
Thanks,
Sue

[Worth1]

Thats good to hear.

The woody ones i have found to have the best luck with by keeping them in soggy soil. for about 3 weeks then if you remove the soil you will see roots growing.

I just picked up some pink and white blooming rosemary Rosemary, Spanish (Rosmarinus officinalis 'Majorca')
Rosemary, White-Flowered (Rosmarinus officinalis 'White-Flowered')will have to check up more on the white one.

Glad to hear some of them took root.

Worth

[Grub]

And anothing thing: make soome woody rosemary cuttings, strip back the leaves, and use the skewer for threading lamb chunks that were marinated in red wine, balsamic, garlic, chopped rosemary and wine and touch of olive oil. BBQ and serve on resemary skewers with potatoes and veggie and more red wine. Great skewers!

[Worth1]

Grub,
Gorizia is a great choice for skewers very long strait branches of a good diameter.
It also has a larger leaf than other rosemarys and does better if it gets too much rain.

If you are into rosemary this one is a must have in the garden.
I have read that it gets to 4 feet tall and in other places to 6 feet tall.

I just about bet mine will get to around ten feet here with care I have already seen a plant down the road that is about eight feet and it is not of the type that gets as tall as Gorizia.

Worth