Rosemary By Dorothy Dobbie
“As for rosemary, I let it run all over my garden walls, not only because my bees love it but because it is the herb most sacred to remembrance and to friendship, whence a sprig of it has a dumb language.” –Sir Thomas More
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ne of the most fragrant herbs, rosemary is a member of the mint family. You can tell by its square stems and opposite leaves, tiny flowers and strong scent, a sure indication of relationship to the family Lamiaceae. Its leaves are needle-like and the tiny blossoms are white, pink, blue or purple. Its Latin name is Salvia rosmarinus, which means “dew of the sea.” Rosemary comes from the sunny, dry world of the Mediterranean, the first hint about how it likes to exist. This is a land where lawns are few and gravel or paving provides the ground covers because water is scarce. Rosemary is therefore drought tolerant and likes a nice loamy, well-drained soil. It can get quite large under the right conditions and is used as a hedge and for topiary in its native habitat. There are also low-growing, creeping forms. Generally, it prefers a moderate, frost-free climate but there is a cultivar, ‘Arp’, that will tolerate temperatures as low as -12 Celsius and can stay outside in Zones 5 or 6 in the right conditions. How to propagate Rosemary is easily propagated by taking soft 4-to-6-inch cuttings, stripping leaves from the bottom of the stem, and placing the cuttings in water to develop roots. Or add some growth hormone and plant directly into soil or even into some damp gravel or perlite. Uses Valued for millennia, it was used in Egyptian burials. It showed up and naturalized in China as early as the Han Dynasty around 220 CE. Hungary water was a perfume made of rosemary mixed with alcohol in Europe, but rosemary is mainly famous for its use as a culinary herb, found in soups, casseroles,
Rosemary in blossom. 10 • 2021
Issue 1
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