On 11/24/2007 8:22 PM, BeeCee wrote:
Every fall now for several years I have dug some of the rosemary in my
garden, potted in growing medium, and brought it indoors.

Invariably, soon after I have brought it in, the leaves start to get covered
with powdery mildew.

I can usually keep it alive by washing it frequently but it doesn't thrive.

It has been suggested that I should open a window every day and let it have
fresh air but this is impractical as the temperature gets well below
frreezing.

Could it be that I am keeping it too wet? When I pot it I soak it well to
set the roots into the potting medium.

Any suggestions?

Brian



The main problem is that you are trying to grow something that is quite
unsuited to your climate. If you must grow rosemary, treat it like an
annual and replace it every spring.

The rosemary bush in front of my house is about 30 years old. It
survived the "Great Freeze of '07" this past January, when temperatures
turned my wax-leaf begonias to mush and killed my statice (sea lavender,
Limonium perezii). Besides that record-breaking chill, we had a
generally cold winter, with frost as early as the end of November.
However, freezing temperatures here happen only at night. It's
round-the-clock freezing for several days that kills rosemary.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening pages at http://www.rossde.com/garden/