Help needed re: Rosemary

I left my rosemary bush right in the raised bed last year to see if it would make it thru the winter.
Lo and behold, this year not only the Rosemary, but the lemon balm beside it are there.

My question is my Rosemary is a small brown bush. Will it turn green by itself? Should I cut it back to get new growth?

I'm a dunce when it comes to herbs.

Warning, warning lemon balm is a member of the mint family!!! Take a twig from your rosemary plant and snap it off. If the wood is green and healthy (or bendy and doesn't want to break) leave the plant alone, if it is brown and crunchy cut it back some. If this is your herb box only put a little compost on it, as herbs like a tough life. I would be more helpful with your Rosemary, if you lived in the south, here it is an ever green and quickly grows to the size of a shrub. Enjoy your greening garden.

Patty from Yorktown

Oh dear, Quiltbea, sad to say it's toast. Rosemary doesn't survive our harsh winters!! BUT I have seen some really really juicy specimens for not that much money at the shops lately!! My 9 year old rosemary lives in a pot that comes inside for the winter.

camprn wrote:Oh dear, Quiltbea, sad to say it's toast. Rosemary doesn't survive our harsh winters!! BUT I have seen some really really juicy specimens for not that much money at the shops lately!! My 9 year old rosemary lives in a pot that comes inside for the winter.

Camprn is right - toast! Not a chance of rosemary surviving through your winters! I am trying to get enough nerve to put one in a pot and move it in and out each season. Before I moved to SD I lived in an area where rosemary was used as evergreen landscaping. NOT FAIR!!!!!

You can grab a penknife & scrape some bark to double-check, but that plant looks like a gonner

Good thing is that they are under $3.50 for the 4" pots right now in the box stores & the 3gal buckets of it were like $10.00 at the local HD by me (not sure if that applies in your neck of the woods, but I'm assuming national chain pricing shouldn't vary by that much, regionally).

I usually grab a couple of the 4" pots for cheap around now, slap a topiary form on them & have 12"+ height, 6-9" diameter, mini-Christmas trees to decorate as gifts by early December (they grow fairly fast).

acara wrote:
Good thing is that they are under $3.50 for the 4" pots right now in the box stores & the 3gal buckets of it were like $10.00 at the local HD by me (not sure if that applies in your neck of the woods, but I'm assuming national chain pricing shouldn't vary by that much, regionally).

And if it makes you feel better, I had to pay about $18 for a 4" pot here!

Thanks for the input re: rosemary. I took my trusty jacknife out with me and scraped several branches. Brown all the way thru so I pulled it out.

I saw Rosemary plants in Home Depot the other day for around $4 so I'll stop in to pick up one and plant it in a container to bring in for the winter.
Thanks for that input as well.

As for the lemon balm, I guess I'd better transplant that into a container if its invasive. I bought several containers this year to put in things like herbs and flowers so I'm prepared.

That's what I love about this forum. Someone is always eager to help another.
Thanks everyone.
quiltbea

Icemaiden wrote:

acara wrote:
Good thing is that they are under $3.50 for the 4" pots right now in the box stores & the 3gal buckets of it were like $10.00 at the local HD by me (not sure if that applies in your neck of the woods, but I'm assuming national chain pricing shouldn't vary by that much, regionally).

And if it makes you feel better, I had to pay about $18 for a 4" pot here!

Yeah ... I know yr pain .... last fast-food meal in Iceland cost me $65.00 for dinner at Pizza Hut ....and I thought Hawaii was bad

Everythings stupid-expensive in yr neck of the woods & I don't envy you.

Years ago, I bought an older house in Portland, OR. Having just moved up from Texas, I didn't recognize a mat of vegetation in what looked like a garden area in the back of the house. Yep, it turned out to be lemon balm.....a solid mat of intertwined herbs....so intertwined it was impossible to even sink a shovel into the mat. Great scent, probably good for tea, etc., but almost impossible to dig out. Never, never again. As to the rosemary, you may have better luck with a variety called Arp, which seems to defy its Mediterranian parentage/roots and will do better in cold weather. In Maine, I'd still move it inside for winter.

If it makes you feel any better about losing your Rosemary I can't get mine to germinate this year using last years seed so it looks like I'll be buying a pot too

I've had my lemon balm for 4 springs now, it's behaved nicely, only growing to a nice round mound. It gets about 12" tall, but that's when it's time to trim it, and it gets to hot for it to grow again. My chocolate and spearmint mint however have their own spots, and there is a "block" burried 6" deep in the soil surrounding them.

FarmerV, what kind of "block" do you have surrounding your chocolate mint? My new ChocoMint is surrounded on three sides, but open on the fourth, and will need confinement before end of summer.

I dug down 6" and put wood there, I wanted to use tin but could not get my hands on hubby's clips. It's worked so far, but that chocolate mint, leans over and tries to take root in the spots next door. One good way to control it is to burry the pot it is in, you could use a gallon size pot, and just burry it leaving 2"-3" above ground.

Good idea, and it set me off thinking about putting a piece of plastic from a broken storage box on the open side. Appreciate your input.

Rosemary dies off with sustained temps below 25F. My experiences verify that unfortunately. I like to set them in the ground and repot for inside during the winter. However they seem to grow shoulder high in about 3-4 years and I can't accommodate them that big. My solution for that is to lay a lower branch down ( crease or scrape the bark) and cover it with soil ( air layering) pinning it down with a wire stake or rock. Dig it up a few times over the summer to examine for new roots forming then in fall cut it off and pot it for your next generation Rosemary. On a bigger plant several branches may be air layered and shared or hoarded. I may try the permanent pot gig next it does seem easier. My question to you all is are the blocks used just on the mint to halt creeping or am I missing something about rosemary.

Rosemary is very easy to propagate from cuttings. If you have friend who can give you a branch or two just keep it in water, and soon you'll see roots. In my groceries store it is possible to buy a bunch of fresh Rosemary branches, and if they are cheaper then seedling at nurseries one can root them. I did it many times by accident when I bought too much Rosemary and kept it in water for "later".
For three years now I have my own Rosemary bush in big pot which goes to my basement "nursery" for winter. This winter it even had flowers. The key to growing Rosemary, I think, is to keep it on dry side.

Jola, you are right about growing conditions for rosemary. Where it grows wild in southern France, in Italy, even Greece, it grows on rocks, south near the Mediterranian Sea, and with very dry periods interspersed with wet ones. Our two successful rosemary plants here in Western Oregonian are planted in areas that receive lots of rain in spring, then no rain or water throughout August. Yes, their roots are in soil warmer than the surrounding areas (one is in a raised bed, the other trails over a retaining wall), but other than that, they get the same treatment: water if I remember sometimes in August, but none if we are traveling. Winter and Spring: lots of rain water. Both have survived 20 degree temperatures in winter.

I have a fairly shallow but 18 inch diameter planter that has done very well in keeping my mint under control. It is the last one in the shot, the tan colored container ontop of the old wash tub.

I've heard that about mint being very invasive and needing to be contained.

I have a shallow pot like you extremesoccermom...so I'll use that one if I get some mint this season. I've been thinking of buying a seedling. I love summer drinks with mint in them.

I started some mint from store bought sprigs by setting them in a jar of water until they grew roots. The first two years I grew it in pots. It did not take long for the roots to fill the pot and when that happens the plant goes down hill from there (leaves turn brown and start yellowing). Last fall I took the mint out of the one large pots I had -- and I was none too gentle either -- the roots were so matted that I took a serrated knife and cut the thing into 6 parts. I tossed them in a corner where I have some sage and herbs in pots, threw some Mel's Mix over the roots, tamped down firmly with my feet...and this year it looks better than it ever has and it is coming up everywhere in that corner.

And about rosemary. I have always kept it in pots and bring it in for the winter, along with a pot of English thyme. My small town grocery doesn't carry them. Those are the two herbs, along with parsley, I like to keep on hand for cooking. Parsley is easy to find and keeps well in a jar of water in the fridge. I did try bringing in it one winter, but it got infested with white flies so I decided it wasn't worth it!

pattipan

Does any one have a way to bring herbs in without the insect life? It seems to me that the odd bug outdoors turns into a million as soon as i bring a pot of herbs inside!

Icemaiden

I have found that a pretty stong spray of water dislodges MOST insects from my herbs. I use that before bringing them in for the winter.

Furbalsmom wrote:Icemaiden

I have found that a pretty stong spray of water dislodges MOST insects from my herbs. I use that before bringing them in for the winter.

Thanks, I'll try that this autumn