On 19 Mar, 08:13, Sacha wrote:
On 2010-03-18 21:30:33 +0000, "graham" said:







"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2010-03-18 17:54:43 +0000, "graham" said:

"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2010-03-18 13:12:58 +0000, "dido22" said:

Hello

I have grown Rosemary in a large pot for many years during the summer
months, and have always thrown it away late Autumn, *then bought a new
plant next spring.

I've just bought a new plant ( 'upright Rosemary' ) and I read on its
label that it can be grown into a bush up to 2 metres high !!

Has anyone grown a Rosemary bush before?, does it survive the winter?,
does it smell & taste as good as a new plant does ?

Thanks

KK

It may be Miss Jessop's Upright and some people use it as an informal
hedge. *I think 2 metres is pushing it a bit, though. *Where do you
live?!
We have rosemarys that survive all winters, including this one and it's
usually regarded as pretty hardy. *It's a shrub so take cuttings and
propagate new ones but there's no reason at all to throw it away each
year.
--
Sacha,
Do the different varieties smell different? *I ask this because the
rosemary
that I'm growing in a pot in my kitchen window has a stonger "medicinal"
smell than usual.
Graham

Not that I know of, Graham. *What medium is it growing in?

I re-potted it in a standard potting soil which has quite a high "fibre"
content, presumably sphagnum.

We have several rosemaries and they just smell of rosemary. * The
differences are in flower colour and growth habit and tenderness, too. *Do
you know which yours is?

No. *I think a lot is grown from seeds from the UK. *I bought the plant at
the farmers' market from someone selling herbs in pots. *My ~20yr old plant
had died and I bought the replacement on a whim. *However, I've never seen
different named varieties in the nurseries. *The plant breeders tend to
concentrate on breeding hardy varieties of the bigger stuff such as tree
fruits.

I wonder - and this is pure supposition on my part - if growing it indoors
in Canadian winters might affect it through lack of sunlight?

It's in a south facing bay window so is little different from a greenhouse.
I'm also on approximately the same latitude as Barnstaple! *It will be
outside during the summer.

Barnstaple! *You're practically a Devonian. *;-)



Perhaps it's age, *mine*!! *Claret doesn't smell like the clarets I drank in
my 30s {:-(

This is true! *Things do seem to change when perhaps it's we who change!



Could the rosemary's normal flavour become more concentrated, as in a
dried herb?

I never dry it and never use dried rosemary. *I would have thought the
flavour wouldn't be as strong in dried.

On the whole, the general assumption is that dried herbs are stronger
in flavour, more concentrated but I have only used fresh rosemary from
our garden, with the exception of a herb mix I bought in Crete years
ago.



As a side note, I'd like to grow some heather. *Is it available as seed?
Graham

Yes, it can be grown from seed but I've never done it, so I don't know
what the success rate is.
--
Sachawww.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I can't see why anyone would want to grow it from seed, Cuttings take
so easily.
Just as an experiment I bought a packet of fresh rosemary from Tesco,
it was "yellow stickied" so was not the freshest, and put all the
stems in as cuttings, the strike rate was well over 50%, giving me
around 12 plants for the princly sum of 10p.
Re the flavour, strength, I would have put it down to the weather, in
dry sunny times the oil would be more concentrated in the leaves.
David Hill