Rosemary

If you like Rosemary, read this (taken from "Grown in Wales"'s FB ).

Restrictions have now been introduced on the import of plants than are carriers of the disease Xylella Fastidiosa. This will include Rosemary which is a plant that is commonly imported from the continent as a herb. It is grown in huge quantities and you will all have seen them in the same pots, looking pretty good in every garden centre and florist in the land. We competed with these imports by having a range of varieties (I think we have 9 on the nursery now) having a bigger pot and proudly declaring that they are grown without peat and synthetic pesticides here in Wales.

Unlike most of the herbs that we grow Rosemary is really a shrub and as such it takes longer to produce a decent plant so production for next year starts now with a cutting that, once rooted , is potted into a 9cm pot for overwintering. These are then potted into their final pot as the weather starts to warm up in the spring . At a guess I would say that once they are potted they don't want to experience a minus 5 frost. If the pot freezes solid you get problems so we tend to pot small batches at first,just in case. They are quite happy confined in the smaller pot. They are one of those plants that don't seem to mind it which is good for us because we can keep potting from a 9cm into our large 1.4L as we need them which saves space.

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Time to take cuttings ready for next year!!

Hello Veggie

I would like to take some cuttings to grow as a hedge over the plot next year. Can you give me any hints/tips as to how and when to do this please?

I've not had any success with cuttings in the past!!

I think 'Heal' cuttings work best for rosemary.

About 6 weeks ago I took about 10 cuttings off an old rosemary and they've all rooted. The cuttings were about 4 inches long, cut just below a leaf node, 2/3 of the leaves were stripped and the cut end was dipped in rooting hormone. I put them in a 50/50 mix of coir and perlite, covered the pot with a plastic bag and put it a couple of feet away from a window sill. Took the bag off every few days to give them some air and when roots started coming out the bottom of a pot I put each cutting into its own 9cm pot and they've been outside against a sunny wall since.

I took 10 cuttings today, popped 5 in water and 5 in a mixture of MPC, Sand, and Vermiculite, will see what happens?

The 5 in water are on a windowsill and the 5 potted ones are in the greenhouse/blow-away, are these locations ok?

Afternoon folks

The ones in water have started sending out roots, picture attached.

Is this example now ready to pot on?

Do I cut it back to just under the new roots?

Well done, Danny.
If it was mine, I'd pot it up as it is, but you can cut the bottom stem off too. Doubt it will matter whatever you do!

Well done, Danny.
If it was mine, I'd pot it up as it is, but you can cut the bottom stem off too. Doubt it will matter whatever you do!

Ok thanks Veggie. Some of the others only have one root at the moment, should I give these more time in the water?

Yes, give them a bit longer. There's no hurry to pot up whilst the leaves look healthy and green.

Well done Danny