![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
On Pruning Rosemary
Dec. 5th, 2018 08:28 pmI have a lovely rosemary bush.*
When I bought it, the tag said that it could grow to a diameter of up to 6 feet, so I made sure to plant it a full 3 feet from the house and 3 feet from the sidewalk, even though it looked a little silly at the time.
It turns out it can grow to a diameter of at least 15 feet. It is blocking the sidewalk and growing around the corner of the house and trying to grow into the door to take shelter.
(Someone should make a horror movie where the monsters are plants. "The Rosemary Bush that Ate Austin." Except invasives would be even more scary (hi, kudzu). At least there's still just the one rosemary at my place, and there's also the advantage that your legs smell good when you rub it as you walk past trying to get to the front door.)
So I decided to research how to properly prune it. (Alternatively, I could make a new, curving sidewalk to go around it. And cut off that one part of the house that's in the way.)
All the information I found was focused on how to prune a rosemary to stimulate growth. Um, no, please! I tried looking up how to prune it like a hedge, and they basically said to just trim away the parts you don't want. I preferred the details of the other sites. So here are some useful details.
When
You should prune rosemary during the spring or summer, many weeks before the first frost, because pruning tends to stimulate growth, and in fall an winter it should be "hardening off" to protect itself. Oops, too late for this year.
One site said to clip it after flowering and again around August. My plant is almost always flowering. It certainly is right now. (Bees love it.) So I'm going to call that unhelpful.
I do cut off branches for decorating Christmas presents and haven't noticed a problem. I guess it's such a tiny percentage of the plant now that it doesn't make any difference.
Where
You should prune no more than one third of a branch, and if that leaves it too big, wait a few months for it to recover and prune it one third again.
Most importantly, don't go all the way back to where the branches are tough, and certainly not back to where the branches are bare, because then they won't branch and they might not even grow. So, I think that's going to be my strategy, next spring. Or maybe it's okay to do that now, because I would not be stimulating growth. The mail carrier would appreciate that.
If you have advice or questions, let me know!
* Disclaimer: I suck at gardening, and also don't enjoy it. How did my rosemary plant do so well when it really doesn't like freezing? My best guess is that being nestled next to the house protects it. And I did water it the first summer.
When I bought it, the tag said that it could grow to a diameter of up to 6 feet, so I made sure to plant it a full 3 feet from the house and 3 feet from the sidewalk, even though it looked a little silly at the time.
It turns out it can grow to a diameter of at least 15 feet. It is blocking the sidewalk and growing around the corner of the house and trying to grow into the door to take shelter.
(Someone should make a horror movie where the monsters are plants. "The Rosemary Bush that Ate Austin." Except invasives would be even more scary (hi, kudzu). At least there's still just the one rosemary at my place, and there's also the advantage that your legs smell good when you rub it as you walk past trying to get to the front door.)
So I decided to research how to properly prune it. (Alternatively, I could make a new, curving sidewalk to go around it. And cut off that one part of the house that's in the way.)
All the information I found was focused on how to prune a rosemary to stimulate growth. Um, no, please! I tried looking up how to prune it like a hedge, and they basically said to just trim away the parts you don't want. I preferred the details of the other sites. So here are some useful details.
When
You should prune rosemary during the spring or summer, many weeks before the first frost, because pruning tends to stimulate growth, and in fall an winter it should be "hardening off" to protect itself. Oops, too late for this year.
One site said to clip it after flowering and again around August. My plant is almost always flowering. It certainly is right now. (Bees love it.) So I'm going to call that unhelpful.
I do cut off branches for decorating Christmas presents and haven't noticed a problem. I guess it's such a tiny percentage of the plant now that it doesn't make any difference.
Where
You should prune no more than one third of a branch, and if that leaves it too big, wait a few months for it to recover and prune it one third again.
Most importantly, don't go all the way back to where the branches are tough, and certainly not back to where the branches are bare, because then they won't branch and they might not even grow. So, I think that's going to be my strategy, next spring. Or maybe it's okay to do that now, because I would not be stimulating growth. The mail carrier would appreciate that.
If you have advice or questions, let me know!
* Disclaimer: I suck at gardening, and also don't enjoy it. How did my rosemary plant do so well when it really doesn't like freezing? My best guess is that being nestled next to the house protects it. And I did water it the first summer.