Plant Profile: Rosemary
By Sonya Welter
As a born and bred Midwesterner, for most of my life I assumed that rosemary—and, for that matter, every other herb—was a small, compact plant that grew in pots on people’s patios.
So when I went to Spain in college, I was stunned to discover that in its native habitat, rosemary is actually a bushy, aromatic, evergreen hedge that can reach up to six feet tall.
The hotel where I stayed in Toledo was on the edge of town and bordered some open scrub land; the rosemary there may have been intentional landscaping or may have sprouted up on its own, but either way it was a revelation.
In a cold climate like Duluth, rosemary is either grown outdoors as an annual, or it is planted in pots and overwintered indoors, although it’s hard to give rosemary enough light inside during the short days of winter. My most successful attempt at growing rosemary so far is my current one, and my little plant has now survived almost a full year.
Luckily, other than craving lots of sunlight, rosemary is a pretty tough herb. When I brought in my plants for the winter, I initially put them in a mudroom off of the kitchen, which is unheated but faces south, and I was hoping it would stay warm enough for my plants.
No such luck. When temperatures plummeted in November, it dropped below freezing in the mudroom and I lost my parsley, geraniums and several succulents. The rosemary was one of the few plants that survived.
It spent the rest of the winter in the basement, in a south-facing window, and only got watered about once a week when I did laundry, which seemed to suit drought-tolerant rosemary just fine. Rosemary grows so slow that my little pot seems to have not grown at all, but when I compare pictures from last year it has actually more than doubled in size.
I’ve refrained form harvesting much rosemary over the winter because I didn’t want to stress the plant, but now with spring coming I can start to think about oven-roasted little red potatoes with rosemary. I also use rosemary in herb bread or in vegetable soups.
The piney-citrusy flavor of rosemary pairs well with lemon, and fresh rosemary is a unique addition to lemonade or to lemon shortbread cookies. Rosemary leaves won’t soften with cooking, so generally they should be either chopped very fine or left in a large sprig that can be fished out later.
I leave them whole for my potatoes, since roasting them with oil in a hot oven turns the rosemary leaves deliciously crisp.
April 8th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
Don’t forget about the flowers! Get it to bloom by giving it tonnes of light, carefully cycled, like a poinsettia. I haven’t managed to get mine to bloom yet, mind you.
Rosemary is pretty tough, but you have to be careful not to dry it out too much
April 12th, 2010 at 7:32 pm
I haven’t gotten mine to flower, either. Something to try for in the future!