Rosemary

An Intro to Rosemary

MY STATUS: Grown Successfully to Harvest

Rosemary is a woody perennial herb related to mint that produces a pungent aroma and is widely used both as a seasoning and as an ornamental shrub.

ULTRA DRY

Rosemary's needle-like leaves hint at the type of environment to which it is adapted. It is native to the Mediterranean, grows excellently in nutrient-poor, bone-dry desert soils, and can survive lengthy periods of drought. The point being--it doesn't need much water and will drown pretty quick if exposed to the elements on Pohnpei. You should only water once a week or less. Rosemary does fine in containers, though, and that's exactly how you should do it here. This way you can keep it completely out of the rain and still get it the most sunlight possible.

SUN x 10

Perhaps even more than the other Mediterranean herbs, rosemary worships the sun. It can take pretty much any type of sun this planet has to offer, so you won't need to worry about it getting too much on Pohnpei. At the same time, lack of constant bright sun won't kill it; it will just grow slower.



QUICK-DRAINING, SANDY SOIL

Rosemary neither needs nor likes rich soil full of organics. And as we've already mentioned, it likes it dry. Rather than planting your rosemary in a typical potting soil-compost mix, use 70% soil and 30% sand. The sand will heat up quicker than soil and keep the plant nice and toasty. It will also keep the soil from retaining water.

SLLLLLLOOOOOW . . .

Speaking of slow . . . rosemary is a notoriously slow-growing plant. It can take as long as three years to reach maturity from seed. Once it gets there, though, it can go crazy. About ten years ago, my parents planted some rosemary on a steep, rocky slope behind their house in Southern California. The entire lower part of the slope is now covered with a wild 4-5 foot wall of dense, impassable shrubs! My dad massacres them with a hedge trimmer a couple times a year and it all just gets bigger, woodier, and more frightening.

But coming back to the typically slow growth, at least at the beginning. Three years is a pretty long-term commitment for most of us. Read on for other options for adding this plant to your garden without waiting forever.

SAD SEEDS / HAPPY CUTTINGS

Rosemary seeds have a very low rate of germination. You have to sow a lot of seeds, and most of them won't do anything. If you're fortunate enough to get something to sprout, you'll then have to wait years for the plant to develop to the point where it can be used for anything. This is why hardly anyone grows rosemary from seed if they can avoid it. Luckily, rosemary propagates very easily from cuttings. Simply cut a nice-sized branch from someone's existing plant, dip the cut end in rooting hormone, strip all the leaves off the lower 2-3 inches, and plant. The cutting will put down roots in a couple of weeks and voila!--you will be the proud owner of a new rosemary clone!

FORGET PESTS

Rosemary isn't known for its susceptibility to pests. You probably won't need to worry about this.

What I Did

What I did is simple.

I CHEATED.

Yes, I admit it.

First, I attempted to germinate some seeds the same way I did with everything else. I used a whole package of seeds and only two germinated. Two darn seeds. But then they just remained tiny little nubs above the soil for weeks and never got large enough to even transplant. When I realized that I would have to wait 2-3 years for a real plant, even if my seedlings survived, I ditched those little bastards and found a friend who already had a lot of mature rosemary growing in pots.

My friend had recently propagated a new plant from a cutting, so he just gave that to me. Problem solved. I certainly can't claim to have grown the rosemary myself or to have any special skills related to rosemary-cultivation. But the whole point of this blog is to show that it is possible to grow these plants on Pohnpei, and my friend pretty much proved that already. Now that people have mature rosemary plants on Pohnpei, there's really no reason to bother with seeds. Get to know some people who have what you want and beg a cutting off them.

DAY 1 - TRANSPLANTATION

I did actually replant the rosemary plant I acquired from the friend mentioned above. I replanted it in a slightly larger pot than it was originally and used 30% fine black sand and 70% potting soil.

DAY 2-18

I move my rosemary around and give it the most sun it can get here. I water it every 7-10 days, depending on how sunny and hot it has been. It looks great.

DAY 19 - TOPPING

I felt that the plant had been in the pot long enough to be well-established after the transplant. Since it was originally a single stalk about 8 inches tall, I snipped off the top 1/3 of the plant. This will encourage new sprigs to come up from the base of the plant and branches to form on the main stalk.

DAY 29

Since I topped the plant, a whole bunch of needles have lengthened out (left) and will eventually become new branches. Right on!

Can't think of much else to do with this self-maintaining plant. Maybe I should play Edison Lighthouse's "Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes" and Simon & Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair" to it? :)

DAY 65 - UNINVITED GUEST

The rosemary has certainly been the most low maintenance of all the plants I have. I water it deeply about once a week and sometimes less if we have a stretch of cloudy days. The single stalk has branched out all over the place, and the bottom shoot is almost half as tall now. But the most surprising thing has been the tomato seedling (below) that sprouted right next to the rosemary plant and is now almost 3 inches tall. I'm not sure where it came from. I haven't planted any tomatoes in a long time and I definitely didn't drop a seed in this container intentionally. And yet, there it is. I'll probably pull it out in another week and replant it. I'm not even sure what type it is, since I currently have three varieties of tomatoes and the seedlings all look identical.

DAY 71

I can't actually believe it. A SECOND tomato seedling sprung up yesterday in the rosemary pot! I have no clue where these guys are coming from. I removed the first one yesterday and will replant it tomorrow. The rosemary is really thriving in its new position on the roof under a clear plastic shelter. New leaves are sprouting everywhere, the side shoot is almost as tall as the original, and the main stem has several new branches.

DAY 85

The rosemary has expanded to the point where it's almost big enough for me to take a branch and start a second plant.

DAY 181 (9/5) - FILLED OUT

Over the summer, which has been exceptionally dry and hot for Pohnpei, my rosemary plant has completely filled. I've continually snipped off the top of all the main branches, causing plant growth to go into producing more branches. And that's really all I've done. I hardly water it and I never fertilize or do anything else. It just grows and grows on its own. My kind of plant!