Growing Rosemary

Rosemary is a popular herb. It is extremely aromatic, and is fabulous for cooking, or just for smelling! It's foliage is cooked into or on top of meats, fish, vegetables, soups.. It's flowers are crushed to make oil, and perdfumes. Rosemary is also used as a mini Christmas tree. It is sold at stores around Christmas time in a pyramid/Christmas tree shape. People can walk by and have a delightful holiday smell fill the room! Rosemary requires excelent drainage to survive. It willl survive areas with lots of rain, but is absolutly essential to have excellent drainage for it to thrive there in that rainy spot. Only water in the summer if potted, or in the desert in the ground. Otherwise, it should handle the summer heat. Rosemary needs full sun. It can take part shade, but won't perform its best. Rosemary is very finicky indoors. Winters (at least in Indiana) are very cloudy. Days on end can be cloudy here. Even in a full sun spot by the window, the Rosemary could die. Or even if you have sunny Winters an area not directly in a sunny window may die. Since it is cooler inside, it takes longer for traditional potting mix to dry, and any remaining moisture for more than a day or two will rot the plant. Make sure you water it only when the soil is completely gone dry, and is in the brightest window of your home. It can also be grown under grow lights as well. Rosemary is freeze tolerant to a certain degree. It is hardy between 15°F to 20°F. It will only briefly survive temps in the teens. There are cultivars that are hardy below 0°F. These cultivars include 'Arp', 'Alcalde', 'Madeline Hill', and 'Athens Blue Spire'. These varieites are hardy in USDA Zones: 6-11. They can survive zone 5 with protection from winter winds. I have had success growing 'Arp' Rosemary in my USDA Zone: 5b in Indianapolis. It survived temps into the negative single digits with minimal damage. However on January 31, 2019 the polar vortex brought temps to -13°F with strong winds over 30 mph. I had protected it with multiple layers of burlap, but got zapped by the cold anyways. I have a rooted cutting from that plant before it died. I am also ordering more 'Arp' Rosemary plants this Summer, and have a new plan for winter protection next winter. 🤞

Also really popular varieties are weeping. Several weeping varieties do exist, and are beautiful drooping over planters, or walls.

Where temps stay warmer than -10°F at all times, the cold hardy cultivars I mentioned above should succeed with minimal damage. If temps colder than -10°F are expected provide extreme protection by means of burlap, heat lamp, or a box or cold frame of somekind to protect from the wind. Or a much easier route will be to dig it up and bring it inside untill it warms up.

Good luck!

NatureMan