Image Credit:
Andrei Metelev
Botanical Name
Salvia rosmarinus (aka Rosmarinus officinalis)
Grown as
Toxicity
Sun Exposure
Water Needs
Height
Spread
Bloom Time
Resilience
Plant Type
Planting
Plant in full sun in fast-draining soil; rosemary won’t tolerate being constantly wet. Ideally, the soil should be relatively fertile (mix in compost prior to planting to increase nutrient levels).
When to Plant Rosemary
- Plant rosemary in spring well after the frosts have passed, once the soil is starting to warm up (around 70ºF or 21°C). In warmer climates, plant in spring or fall.
- Most gardeners start rosemary from young plants bought at a nursery. This plant does not germinate easily from seed and seedlings are slow to grow.
- However, if you have access to an established rosemary plant, rosemary is very easily started from cuttings.
- If you wish to grow from seed indoors, just be aware it will take several years to grow the plant large enough to start harvesting.
- Start seeds or cuttings indoors 8 to 10 weeks before the last spring frost. (See your local frost dates.)
How to Plant Rosemary
- Rosemary grows well in the ground or in containers. However, it does not like wet roots, so if your soil is heavy or wet, plant it in a pot or a raised bed. Also, rosemary does not transplant well from ground to container, so start in a pot if you plan to bring it inside (especially in colder climates).
- Before planting in the ground, mix in several inches of organic matter, such as compost, to create nutritious, fertile soil.
- In a pot, use a container mix, as rosemary needs a lighter-weight soil mix.
- Space starter plants 2 to 3 feet apart; rosemary does not like being crowded.
- If starting seeds or cuttings indoors, keep the soil moist while seeds germinate and roots develop. Seeds can take a long time to germinate (2 to 3 weeks), so don’t give up right away! Plant outside once the plant is 4 inches tall.
Growing
- Keep the soil uniformly moist, allowing it to dry out between waterings. Be consistent; be careful not to overwater.
- Rosemary shrubs growing in the ground do not need fertilizer, but a potted plant will run out of nutrition more quickly, so feed with an all-purpose balanced fertilizer after flowering.
- Mulch the shrubs to keep plants insulated in winter, but keep mulch away from the crown of the plant to avoid rotting.
- Prune annually before new growth begins in the spring, and prune out dead wood. Don’t prune the rosemary too heavily.
- If you leave rosemary unpruned, it can get very woody, leggy, and straggly. After about 5 years, it’s best to replace it.
- Be sure to get cuttings or divide the plant for next season if it won’t survive winter in your area.
- During the winter, bring potted rosemary plants inside. Learn how to overwinter rosemary indoors.
More Like This
I live in ohio and started my little rosemary in a pot. She got huge and so i put her outside in the ground and she went crazy! I leave her put all winter...this will be her 3rd. I just prune her back in spring and wait. She comes back bigger and stonger every year!
Any suggestions? I just moved to Ohio from Georgia and I know that planting and growing are completely different up here. I just planted some rosemary,basil,and Cilantro in a planter box on my back porch. Is there any suggestions you might have to growing them up here. I know the rain and temperature s are different up here. Just trying to get my little herb garden going.
Hope you might offer some Rosemary advice.
I am an avid gardener, zone 6 25 miles south of Nashville Tennessee. The polar vortex has dipped below us since the week of December 10th causing fantastically colder then Normall temps averaging in the single digits. My beautiful rosemary shrubs were two years old or so when I put them in there spot two years now ...This being there second winter outside. I only mentioned this because they May have enough of a root system to have actually survived, I think. There stems are stil quitel pliable, the leaves are dry and a light brown.
Question;
1.) Do you think the establishment of a good root system beforehand may have allowed the plant to go domant in some way?
2.) Would you wait for new growth to appear well into spring before "sprucing" up the plant by cutting out the "dead growth"?
3.) Is the pliability of the branches any indication of the plants health at all?
The interesting thing about this topic happens to be that the plants really seemed to go domant. The plant was supple and quite vigorously happy &as the days grew much shorter and the nights got colder it very slowly faded to a very pale brown. It was mid January when I finally thought "Well it's done remarkably well considering the freezing temperatures" & of course that's when the color began to fade as if the oils in the plants were retreating.
Any thoughts on this would be great. Thank you Ahead of time. "
Ms. Suzy " home maker " ")
My rosemary is doing the same thing as you mentioned. I live in Memphis,TN. Did you find out anything about your rosemary. I would love to hear it may have went dormant. It's been in the ground about 3 years now.
If your rosemary is brown and you don't see any new growth by now it's probably not going to come back. This past winter has been though for many plants. If you want to try a cold-hardy cultivar try 'Salem', 'Dancing Waters', 'Arp' or 'Hill Hardy'.
I bought a rosemary plant last December from Costco. I looks like a little pine tree and its about 2' tall. At first I had it inside,and did not water it much, because I read it prefers to be on the dry side (by the way, I live in South Florida which falls in Zone 10, very hot and humid climate), but I noticed it wasn'doing very well,the needles started to wilt, so I took it outside so that it would get sunlight, but we had several rainy days and water pooled around the pot. The plant is now almost entirely brown. I put it in a dry spot,although now it does not receive as much direct sunlight, and water about 2-3 times a week, I notice that the pot drains very well, but the plant is not doing much better. What can I do to save the plant?
I also live in so fla. Use desert soil,sand,soil and small rocks it helps more draining the plant does not need watering but every 3 days maybe 4 days or just wait for it to rain. Depending on zone or in or outdoor temperaturet.
Try taking it out of the pot and planting it outside. If it's not too late for it to recover, it should thrive. I planted mine in my native bed in northern Texas four years ago. It's so happy, it blooms in February. It has tiny lavendar blooms right now.
are you sure you have a rosemary plant and not lavender? How could it have a lavender bud? I recently bought a potted lavender combined with a rosemary plant .
Prune some of the dead branches and make sure it gets as much sunlight as possible. Water when the soil feels dry.
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