I haven’t met one person yet, that doesn’t like Rosemary…maybe one day I will; nevertheless, many chefs around the world agree that Rosemary is an important culinary herb and should be included in every herb garden. Besides Rosemary’s many culinary and medicinal properties and its many household uses, its trusses of blue flowers nestled among pine needle-like leaves are an attractive ornamental shrub for perennial borders and beds. Let’s talk about some tips you can quickly learn on how to grow rosemary herb.
Rosemary grows tall and erect or bushy and compact depending on the variety, but it can also grow down, similar to a vine. Rosemary and its cultivars are best started from plants. When grown from seed, germination is slow with variable results and sometimes easier to get started in the less humid fall seasons. Plants, however, can be set out in the spring when the weather has warmed in zones 1 through 9, and in spring or fall in zone 10.
All Rosemary requires full sun, but in the warmer climates they will accept some light shade. They thrive in a light, well-drained, average garden soil. During the growing season, pinch back growth tips two or three inches to promote bushy plants; cut back hard only in early spring to allow the new growth time to mature.
Most Rosemary varieties are reliably hardy to only 20F; however, gardeners in cold-winter areas can successfully grow rosemary indoors in a container with a fast-draining potting soil. Bring the plants indoors at least several weeks before your area’s first frost date. Feed the potted Rosemary regularly with fish emulsion and provide good air circulation to ward off harmful mildew.
Did you know that Rosemary means: Dew of the sea? A very appropriate name for this popular garden herb, watered by the ocean mists in its native habitat along the arid coastline of the Mediterranean. Because of Rosemary’s long literary, cosmetic, culinary, and medicinal history an herb garden without rosemary is unthinkable. But this versatile evergreen needn’t be relegated only to the herb garden.
“Rosemary forms extraordinary hedges and can be clipped into fancy topiary even bonsai for those with the patience,” says Atlantan landscape designer Timothy Clark. “It’s a gleaming focal point in the perennial garden or mixed border,” he adds. Rosemary is a must in a fragrance garden, and it’s the cornerstone of a drought-tolerant garden. The prostrate forms look bountiful in containers and hanging baskets, and in the mild-winter, they create an impressive evergreen ground cover.
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