[Sca-cooks] killing Rosemary

[Margaret N]

Mark Hendershott wrote:

>> <snip>
>>
>> The basil never seems really happy, tho. We have to replant it almost 
>> every
>> year.
>
>
> It is an annual.  Don't know if it typically reseeds itself.  Rosemary 
> grows here in Western Oregon without worry about frost.
>
> Simon Sinneghe
> Briaroak, Summits, An Tir

Basil does reseed itself, here in middle Tennessee, at least. I've grown 
three types, all of which were the larger-leaved varieties, not globe. 
I've noticed that the reseeding isn't always as worthy as the initial 
seeding/planting, though, as it reseeds so profusely that you'll need to 
thin out a lot (a bit less profusely than dill, but darn close). And of 
course, if you don't let it flower and go to seed, it won't reseed.... 
;) Basil flowers are so nifty to smell, too.

I, too, have killed a potted rosemary. It almost, but not quite, made it 
to spring, indoors. The lay of the land here just stays too wet in 
spring and most of summer, excepting the last one, which was drought-y. 
We're going for a house with land of which at least part gets decent 
drainage, and I'll be trying again with it there if the loan comes 
through, likely from a nearby organic seller whom I particularly like. 
My Laurel has an entire bed of rosemary outside her side door, and she 
lives in eastern TN.

>
>> The other that won't do well the are pinks. Yes, those little carnation
>> thingies a/k/a gillyflowers. I'm dying to make gillyflower syrup but 
>> can't find
>> enough fresh petals... :(
>>
>> Renata 
>
Pinks, ime, like water. Drought and lack of care killed much of mine out 
last growing season, and the cold seems to have done them in the rest of 
the way. They may grow back from the roots, so I'm letting the "dead" 
plant sit, for now, to give it that chance. Currently, I've got little 
flat leaf parsley plants growing up through the shelter that the dead 
plant has provided.

Has anyone had any problem with keeping tarragon indoors over the 
winter? I'm finding that mine likes less sun than I initially thought, 
but is developing some leaves that seem to be a lighter, rather unhappy 
green than I like to see. With it being winter, and having been so 
spindly in growth last year, I haven't had the heart to harvest anything 
from it.

Margaret Northwode