Rosemary is one of those wonderful herbs that makes a beautiful ornamental plant as well as a versatile culinary seasoning. Its Latin name means "dew of the sea," and rosemary is most closely associated with the cooking of the Mediterranean region.
Rosmarinus officinalis is easy to grow. The three fundamentals for successfully growing rosemary are sun, good drainage, and good air circulation. If you live in a frost-free area, you can grow rosemary in the ground year-round, where it will grow into a lush, bushy shrub. In cold-winter climates, you can grow rosemary in the ground as an annual, or keep it in a container that you bring indoors well before the first frost.
Water rosemary once every 10-14 days; a amount of water should be a same as in a previous case. Potted rosemary needs watering once a week. A amount of water should be such that a roots are evenly moistened from top to bottom. If it rained at least once in 10 days, then watering is not needed at all.
Avoid using heavy soil. It may be too compacted for your potted plant and won't allow air to get to the roots.
You will make things far easier on yourself if you start with a nursery-grown plant. Rosemary can take years to fill in, so expect to pay more for a mature plant than for a small rosemary start. If you would like to start your own rosemary plant, the best option is to start with a cutting. Rosemary seed can be difficult to germinate and often do not grow true to their parent. It's much faster to start with a cutting, and you will be sure of what type of plant you will get. To propagate with cuttings, snip about a 2-inch cutting from the soft, new growth of an established plant. Remove the leaves from the bottom inch, then dip the cut tip into a rooting hormone and place the dipped end into a container of dampened, sterile seed starting mix that drains well. Ornamental and Edible Sweet Bay: An Ideal Container Plant Place the container in a warm spot with indirect sunlight. Mist the cuttings daily and make sure the soil does not dry out. In about 2 to 3 weeks, test for root growth by very gently tugging on the cuttings. Once the cuttings have roots, transplant them into individual pots about 3 to 4 inches in diameter. Pinch off the very top of the cutting to encourage it to develop branches. If you're growing rosemary in containers, move your pots back outdoors once all danger of frost has passed. As with most potted plants, the soil in your rosemary pot will degenerate through watering and root growth. Re-pot at least once a year. Spring is the best time to re-pot your rosemary, but it should be fine no matter what time of year you get to it. When the rosemary plant puts out considerable growth or looks like it just can't get enough water, it has outgrown its pot and needs to be transplanted into a larger one. If you want to maintain the size of your rosemary plant, root prune it by slicing off a couple of inches of the roots from the bottom and sides of the root ball and replanting in the same pot. Be sure to trim some of the top at the same time to lessen the workload of the roots and the stress placed upon the trimmed plant.
Outdoors, rosemary can tolerate high temperatures and a wide range of humidity. Most varieties are hardy only to 30 F. Where temperatures dip below 30 F, rosemary plants will have to spend the winter indoors. In this case, it's easier to grow your rosemary in a container all year.
Choose a pot with drainage holes, which also ensures potting soil doesn't stay too wet after watering your houseplants. The excess can freely escape out the bottom of the container, allowing oxygen to make its way to plant roots.
