How to Propagate Rosemary from Cuttings

I've killed more rosemary plants than I can count.

Plants I've bought, plants that were given to me, plants in containers and plants in the ground. One glorious summer and then, bam. Dead.

I keep trying because I love rosemary. It's delicious in soups and chicken dishes, and I absolutely love the scent. Brushing my fingers along the leaves releases that wondrous fragrance, and I breathe deeply. Did you know that the scent of rosemary can improve your memory? New research shows that it might even help to treat dementia.

Last year when I brought my potted herbs indoors for the winter, I did some research on keeping rosemary as a house plant. It likes humidity, and misting regularly is recommended. Since that summer's plant had survived into the autumn I was really going to try to keep it alive, and I also thought I'd start a few new plants too. Maybe one of them would survive.

Here's what I did: I cut several three-inch sprigs from a "green" (not woody) stem, pulled the leaves off the bottom of each stem, and stuck them in water where they would, I hoped, grow roots.

And hopefully, if the mother plant didn't survive one or more of the new starts would.

I nearly lost the mother plant before spring, but she recovered. While rosemary likes humidity, it hates wet feet. Finding that happy medium of enough water vs too much water was difficult for me.

Most of the cuttings survived too. After about three weeks I noticed a tiny white root, and as time went on there were more. I misted them with a spray bottle of water to increase the humidity.

I potted them up before spring came, and then had the same struggle of how much water is enough water again. I lost a couple of them, then gave the survivors to a friend who ironically had lost her plant over the winter.

Click here to subscribe to The Acorn, Oak Hill Homestead's weekly-ish newsletter.

Now, at the end of another glorious summer, my rosemary plant is two years old and still doing well. She'll be coming indoors again before the first frost, and has an abundance of green stems that I have already taken cuttings from. Hopefully I'll have a couple of new plants this spring. And hopefully the mother plant will live another glorious summer or two.

Do you love rosemary as much as I do? Have you been able to keep it alive for long?

This post has been shared at some of my favorite blog hops.


~~~~~

My hope is to inspire you, and to encourage your homesteading plans and your dreams of a simple, self-reliant, God-dependent life. You can follow me at:
Facebook | Pinterest | Subscribe