ya, I am in Canberra. It seems they take a long time to develop roots
then... Guess I am better off buying a pot of rosemary. It seems that
rosemary can survive with very little watering. How many times a week do you
recommend watering?


Thuan Seah

"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
om...
"Tan Thuan Seah" wrote in message
...
So does that means I can put the cutting into the soil before any roots
appear from the cutting? Or it's necessary to root it in water first for
roots to develop?

[...]

Don't try to root rosemary in water: it'll be a waste. As you're in
Australia, you'll probably find this is not the easiest time of year
to take cuttings of plants like this, anyhow. (I guess you're in
Canberra, right? Not exactly an English climate, but the principles
are similar.) If you want to do it now, skip cuttings and see below.

Cuttings: in late summer (say February) take a piece about 250mm long,
remove the lower leaves, make a clean cut just below a node (Franz has
explained that), and stick it in the ground where you want the plant
to grow. Do five or six, about 75mm apart, in case some don't root,
and forget about them till spring.

Then, if they look ok, and have started sending up fresh growth,
you're a winner! Remove the ones you don't want, and either plant them
somewhere else or plant them in pots and give them away: people will
be impressed, so get a gardening book in a hurry in case they start
asking _you_ questions!

If you want to do it NOW, the best way in winter is called "layering".
Insanely easy.

You don't cut a piece off the plant. Instead, choose a low branch,
gently scrape off a narrow strip of the bark (from the dark-coloured
part, not the soft tip) about 5mm long (on the underside only), and
gently bend the branch down till the bit you've scraped meets the
ground. Weigh it down with a stone, and forget about it for half a
year. By next February or so, you should find the little branch has
sent out roots from where you removed the bark. You can then cut the
link with the parent plant, and carefully dig out the baby with its
ball of soil and put it in its new position; if there's no hurry, you
can leave it there after cutting through the branch to grow on for a
couple of months before moving it.

Why not try both methods, just for fun, and see which you prefer?

Mike.