Rejuvenating an old rosemary
I have a rosemary in a pot which I've had for around three years. I've potted it on a couple of times as necessary, but it's not looking too great now. There's a lot of woody growth at the bottom and then it sprawls untidily, with oddly bent branches. It's very far from a tidy, compact bush. It has multiple woody stems emerging from ground level.
It suffered badly last winter (2012-2013), so last summer was very much a rescue effort, cutting out the worst affected parts. This winter I was much more careful (fleeced the plant and bubble wrapped the pot) and it seems much happier than it did this time last year, with plenty of new growth. The layers that I took from it last year are looking fantastic too.
So my question is, can I get it into better shape? I could remove the branches that spread out beyond the shape that I'd like, but beyond that, I'm not sure how to deal with it. Could I maybe divide it, since it has multiple stems?
Thanks for any advice.
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Do you know which one you have? If it's one of the sprawly ones you might be fighting a losing battle.
Also they're not long-lived plants. I find the best plan is to take cuttings and replace the plant when it gets too straggly.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Cuttings are easy from rosemary omthree, 3 inch cuttings, bottom half stripped and into very gritty compost or sharp sand and mpc 4 to a 3 inch pot and pop them in a cold frame, they root in s few months weather dependent, when rooted, pinch out the top growth, then keep pinching over the next few months to give you a bushy plant.
Very free draining potting medium, they will grow and cuttings will take in sharp sand alone.
I made four resonable sized new rosemary plants from an old one by making a mound of soil (I used ordinary compost) at its base, covering the lower inches of stem. After a year, I dug down and cut the newly rooted branches away from the parent plant into their own pots.
I also think Rosemary only has a short life span if wanted for culinery purposes. I take cuttings and have planted the old "sad " looking original in the garden and the bees love the flowers.
Wow. Thanks everyone. A wide range of views there. Philippa, how did you go about getting that monster into shape?
I find that regular clipping to obtain plenty of rosemary for the kitchen keeps mine quite neat and compact.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
My original is older than I can remember and quite pot bound. Its struggled over the last 2 years but this year is yellow rather than green. Even so it has the prettiest and most blue flowers it has ever had! I'll pop it in the border somewhere quiet just for old times sake, we go back a long way.