patrick j writes
Hi

I am very much an absolute beginner at gardening.

I went to Romania recently for a couple of weeks. Very nice it was, but on
my return one of the plants in my back garden had become extremely sick
indeed.

The plant is a Common Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) which has been
growing very happily for two years.

About two thirds of it have died and I have cut those away. Right beside it
is an identical plant which is not showing any problem but obviously I want
to make sure it survives. Also I'd like the remaining third of the sick
plant to recover.

There is one notable difference between the sick plant and the well plant.
The sick one has an annoying ball of grass growing in the roots of the
plant. The only way I can think of to dissuade this grass is to keep
pulling out the shoots. However the plant has been happy with that for two
years and I just keep pulling out any grass that is growing. I'd love to
know of some way to rid the plant of this grass.

Rosemary do seem to keel over suddenly, possibly fungal - the symptoms
seem to be die back of whole branches or the whole plant, with the
leaves looking to be dead at the junction between leaf and stem.

Since it's the sick plant that has the grass, I suggest you take some
cuttings from the well plant, and just get rid of the grass when the
sick plant finally keels over completely.
--
Kay