If you want a bush of useful spices to grow in your dacha or all year round in your apartment in warm weather, you need to know which variety to plant, how to grow rosemary from seeds, and how to care for it. Content:
- Description and properties
- Garden varieties
-
Growing features
- Germinating seeds
- Landing in open ground
- Indoor wintering
- Cuttings and reproduction
Once you feel the aroma of rosemary, it is impossible to forget it. This spicy herb smells like pine and camphor at the same time. Rosemary has a pungent flavor and is a popular spice in Mediterranean cuisine.
Description and properties of rosemary
Rosemary is an evergreen shrub or tree plant with needle-like thin leaves that look like conifers. Blooming rosemary is decorated with delicate lilac, and sometimes white or pale pink blossoming buds.
The leaves of this plant above are shiny, dark green, below they are dull and lighter. In horticultural culture, this plant mainly reaches a height of 50-100 cm, but can grow up to 1.5 meters. Under natural conditions, rosemary can grow to the size of a small tree over time.
The Mediterranean plant is valued not only for its taste, aroma, but also for the undoubted benefits that it brings to the body. Thanks to the use of rosemary, digestion is improved, the secretion of gastric juice.
Rosemary is indicated for hypotensive patients, as it increases blood pressure, it will help relieve nervous tension and stress. Due to the property of this medicinal plant to improve memory, cerebral circulation, vision, water infusions are recommended for patients who have suffered a stroke. Rosemary is used with lavender to make this medicine.
It also possesses disinfecting properties, it is able to cleanse the air from a large number of microbes. Annual shoots and leaves of rosemary are used in folk medicine to treat impotence, stomach colic, mumps, rheumatism, thrombophlebitis and other diseases.
As a spice in the preparation of fish, vegetable soups, salads, fried meat, mushrooms, poultry, cabbage, young shoots, leaves, flowers in dry or fresh form are used. Also, this spice is added to marinades. A pinch of chopped dry rosemary will add a pleasant taste to potatoes, soft cheeses, and pastry.
Garden varieties of rosemary
Now this plant is widespread in Russia. Here are the recommended varieties for growing in the region.
These are 2 large types: medicinal rosemary, which is an erect shrub, and prostrate rosemary, which grows in the form of a low bush, rushing upwards by only 50-60 cm and expanding strongly in width.
Varieties of officinalis rosemary:
- Miss Jessopp's Variety;
- Fastigiatus;
- Tuscan Blue;
- Erectus.
Spread rosemary varieties:
- Lavender;
- Creeping;
- Corsican prostrate;
- Corsica Prostratus;
- Venzano Prostrate.
Features of growing rosemary
It should be said right away that rosemary will not overwinter in the middle latitudes of Russia, as it will die from frost. Therefore, for the winter it is transferred to a bright room, where the temperature is + 5 ° C. Under these conditions, it is possible to grow rosemary. You can have a low variety at home and keep the plant in a pot on a windowsill all year round.
Germinating rosemary seeds
If it is possible to grow rosemary in the garden during the warmer months, start by germinating the seeds. They do not always sprout well, so they must be soaked before planting. To do this, place the seeds between two cotton pads or in a cloth. Place the container with seeds in a warm room and keep the cotton or cloth always moist.
For better germination, you should prepare an aqueous infusion of a growth stimulant, for example, Epin, soak in this life-giving liquid for 4 hours. Then the seeds are lightly washed and left moist for 2-4 days.
After this time, prepare a substrate from leafy soil, peat and sand. It is better to buy ready-made, intended for seedlings. Pour it into a container, pour water over it. Spread the seeds on the surface of the earth, do not sprinkle them with soil, cover them on top with a piece of transparent cellophane, put them in a warm place. When shoots appear, place the container on the windowsill.
Rosemary seeds may not germinate well because they contain a lot of essential oils. As you know, this impairs the germination of such seeds, such as basil, carrots. Therefore, it is recommended to first soak such seeds in water or a growth stimulant.
Washing gives excellent results. The seeds are placed in a glass or small jar, poured with water for 20 minutes, then a piece of gauze or bandage is tied to the neck of the vessel, the liquid is drained, a new one is poured. After three or four such washes, the seeds are soaked for 4 hours in a growth simulator, then in water and planted in the ground.
Planting rosemary outdoors
In mid-May, when warm days come, spice seedlings are planted in open ground. The plant is not demanding on the soil, it grows even better on poor lands, but an important condition is that they must be breathable. The place should be sunny, open, protected from the cold winds on the north side.
Water the plant infrequently as the soil dries up, remember that it tolerates drought well. When the plant begins to bloom, the shoots are pruned, used to make spices or medicines, or dried for future use. Pruning is a necessary procedure for upright growing rosemary, but outstretched rosemary does not need it, but will handle a haircut well if you need young shoots.
This plant cannot be pruned to brown old wood, or you may damage it. Leave about a third of the length of young shoots, then the bush will tolerate cutting well.
Wintering rosemary indoors
Around mid-October, when the temperature is close to zero, bring the plant indoors, where the temperature fluctuates between + 5 + 7 ° C. If the rosemary grows outdoors, carefully dig it up. If the root system is damaged, it can die.
In this regard, it is worth advising to grow rosemary in a spacious pot, which has drainage holes at the bottom. So that the soil in it does not dry out, dig a hole in the garden, put a pot there so that the ground in it and in the open ground is at the same level. At the beginning or middle of autumn, you simply take the container out of the ground and transfer it to the house for the winter.
In cool conditions, a bright room, rosemary winters well. In mid-May, you will take him out to the garden again. If rosemary is grown in an apartment all year round, it is carefully transplanted into a larger pot once every 1-2 years.
Cutting and propagation of rosemary
If you don't want to propagate rosemary by seed, use cuttings. In early summer, cut young shoots 7 centimeters long, plant them obliquely in a pot with a light nutritious earthy mixture. Place it in a shaded area in your garden or on a windowsill in your apartment. After 2 months, rooting will occur.
Plant the cuttings in the garden at a sufficient distance from each other, as the outstretched rosemary grows up to 1.5 meters in length. Place seedlings of this type every 2-2.5 meters.
How to grow rosemary - watch the video:
Thus, earlier this plant was grown mainly in North Africa, India, Southern Europe, the Philippines, and the Crimea. Today, botanists have bred varieties that grow successfully in Central Russia and at home.
