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Ok, i've tried growing rosemary from seed and its impossible, though all the others have popped up in a few weeks. So i've bought a couple of small 4 inch plants. I dont have a propagator so whats the easiest method of turning these plants into more rosemary plants?

You can take softwood cuttings from the soft shoots. You need to take a cutting of softwood (the bendy bit, not from a woody plant, which should be easy with new smaller plants), around 3 or 4 inches. Then strip the leaves off the bottom part, about a good two thirds to the top. Then plop the cutting in some compost mixed with a fair amount of vermiculite or sharp sand, as rosemary likes free draining soil that's not too rich.

Hopefully it should just take care of itself. I'm trialing some rosemary and lavender cuttings in this way, and so far, so good!

Good luck

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Cheers, if i need 3 inch cutting, i'll proberly best wait a bit. I dont want to use the entire plant as a cutting now do i

well you can try with smaller cuttings, it's just that they'll take longer to grow!

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Thanks again. Maybe i'll try cutting one bit off then and see what happens

Hi Claygarden

I took cuttings from rosemary, lavender and sage last year and really didn't know what I was doing. I just cut a couple of inches off the top of a spikey bit, stripped any leaves off as Oolalula said and shoved them in a pot of compost. I read somewhere that it's best to put cuttings around the edge of a pot til they take root and then transplant them to their own pots, so this is what I did and I now have lots of lovely new plants.

I took loads of cuttings - too many in fact, so I just stuck the spare rosemary in the ground and about half of them took.

Rosemary roots well from 'heal' cuttings. Just tear of a few branches with a heal and bung em in compost!

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to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

whats a heal?

A "heel" is taking a cutting from the bit where a shoot joins the main stem/branch and including a bit of the old wood with it. Imagine the shoot is a leg, where it joins onto the old wood is the "heel", so you want a bit of that but not the whole foot! Does that make sense?

August is meant to be the ideal time for rosemary cuttings. Something to do with rising sap?

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Cheers greenstar. It sounds like actually using snadgers word then, to tear the shoot away from the main stem to as to take the stems "skin" away with the shoot. Is that right?

Two sheds, does rosemary know the time of year if its just grown inside? Would cuttings from these new young plants (4 or 5 inch high) from the garden centre just not work? I know i dont want to ravage the plant, but thought i may try one from the 2 plants i have.

I'm with Snadger on this. If all plants were as easy as rosemary what a simple life we would have! As I said before in a different line my spaniel (she of the permanent waggy tail) is always knocking bits of and I just plonk them in water outside and wait for requests. There is always someone for rosemary. If you are still having probs I can send you a nice big piece.

Ooooh, i would really appreciate that mrs dog. I didn't fancy destroying the young plants by pulling them apart if the cuttings didn't take by any chance. Can i post you a SAE?

Hi,
I managed to propogate some just by putting a few small stems in a glass of water on the kitchen windowsill!took of the bottom leaves so they did not rot!
Not sure if it was luck or not,but I got that from somewhere!
Regards
Mizjazzi

I have done the same as Mizjazzi but with the stuff in packets from Tesco.It now has a lovely root system and is due to be planted on.

Hi Mrs Dog,
I have been having problems trying to grow rosmary for ages, I was just wondering if the offer you made before may possibly be open to me ??

before planting in compost when you take a cutting try dipping it in a bit of hormone rooting powder to help root growth, i did this with some herb cuttings i got of a friend and there doing well, i found rosemary and parsley hard to grow from seed, but ive now found some tricks for getting parsley to germinate and grow now.

Hi there if you pm your address to me I will post some cuttings for you. No problem at all.

Hi I've propagated some cuttings as well in a glass of water and am about to pot them up. You can see a photo and a description of how to do it on my blog.

Mad About Herbs: Rooting Rosemary in Water

Good luck!

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hi
growing rosemary from seed seems a long process,we planted some in the spring and has taken so long to germinate,is this normal
Thanks

My parents grew a rosemary bush from a 'cutting' they were offered while on holiday (because my sister, then a toddler, is called Rosemary) and the advice they were given was the 'glass of water' technique (plant it when you can see roots). The plant eventually outgrew the space and got 'leggy' so they took another cutting, and when that was doing well, scrapped the old bush. My sisters and I all got cuttings, and all doing well...... It is probably the easiest herb in the world to take cuttings from. The small plants you have bought can be put in big pots outside to grow up, and by spring will be fit for taking cuttings off anyway.

I wouldn't bother with rosemary from seed unless it is the only way to get a variety you especially want. Try nicking a twiggy bit or so from the next garden where you see it<g>

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Flowers come in too many colours to see the world in black-and-white.

Clearly it's just me then.

I took a few cuttings of rosemary about 3-4 weeks ago and put them in water, changed the water every day, kept them in good light (but not direct sun or anything) but nothing happened at all! They've all gone black now and are in the compost. What did I do wrong? Any expert tips?? I'm going to have another try but don't want to repeat the same mistakes...

The single sage cutting I took about the same time rooted almost immediately and is now growing quite happily in a little pot of compost.

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I've had success by taking semi-ripe cuttings - e.g. this year's growth that's starting to go a little woody. From now onwards should be fine.

I normally pot them straight up, 5 to a pot topped with a plastic bag and put in partial shade. Take the bag off when you feel you can, usually a few weeks.

Not all the cuttings come thru, but about about 2/3 to 3/4 of them do so take more than you need.

Of those that are left (and now rooted) at this stage, I'd then also pinch out the growing tip a few inches from the soil. This will give you a nice multi-branched bush in due course with about four arms, rather a single column "leggy" looking plant.

Hope that helps

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Douglas

http://www.myvegetablegarden.co.uk/ - under construction

Douglas - thanks for the tip
Just looked out the window and saw that it has stopped raining so I was thinking about going out right now lol
I'll give you an update in a few weeks time

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Warning: I have a dangerous tendency to act like I know what I'm talking about.