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Re: Rosemary

Hi.  Just thought I'd throw in that my rosemary did very well over the
winter under the fluorescent light I used to start my seeds.  This was
in my apartment's stairwell where the temperature hovers around 60
degrees in the winter.  It transitioned to the real sun with no problems
about a month ago (although we haven't actually had much sun for quite
some time - it IS June isn't it?)

>----------
>From:  Catherine Hensley[SMTP:71740.515@COMPUSERVE.COM]
>Sent:  Thursday, June 05, 1997 11:42PM
>To:    Multiple recipients of list SQFT
>Subject:       Rosemary
>
>Hey, great find!  Your rosemary is probably a prostrate variety, one that
>will cascade over the pot's sides.  I've seen it in landscaping in Las Vegas,
>cascading over the sides of big planters, but, as I live in Zone 5, I'll
>never try that in my own landscaping.  As you say, it's a plant to overwinter
>indoors.
>
>Okay, the book Carrots Love Tomatoes (Louise Riotte, Garden Way Publishers)
>says that carrots and beans like rosemary, as well as all of the Brassica
>family (broccoli, cabbage, etc).  Rosemary also likes to be near sage.
>
>As far as overwintering your rosemary, it takes a bit of care.  In my
>apartment days, I tried (and killed) several rosemaries.  I summered them on
>my full-sun balcony, then brought them in for the winter.  Fortunately, my
>only two windows faced south; unfortunately, the next building blocked direct
>sun for most of the day.  The plants went from full spectrum full sun to a
>rather dim window-sill.  Within a few months, no matter what I did, the
>plants were dead.  Then I moved to my current house, with a beautiful
>bumped-out greenhouse window in full sun for the whole winter.  Suddenly I
>could reliably overwinter rosemaries, no sweat!  Then there's my mother's
>experience.  I gave her a rooted cutting from my then-3-year-old plant, which
>she cared for in her somewhat dim house-plant garden.  It lived on a shaded
>porch during the summer, and then moved back into the dim house-plant area
>for the winter.  Her spindly limp green plant bore absolutely no
>resemblance to my nice, tree-like plant, although they both tasted the same.
>Last summer, however, Mom decided to be "good" to her rosemary, and put it
>out in full sun with her tomatoes (to get it to the drip watering system).
>It suffered some shock early in the season, but soon grew robust and
>tree-like.  Then, Mom took it back indoors to the dim house-plant garden.
>The rosemary croaked.
>
>Shortly after this experience, I attended a virtual herb workshop on
>CompuServe, and learned that the dead rosemaries all suffered the same fate.
>They were subjected to enormous changes in ambient light levels, and didn't
>have enough reserves to grow large low-light leaves to take advantage of
>low-light levels, and their much-smaller bright-light-level leaves just
>couldn't sustain them.  The moral of the story is, if you have to overwinter
>your rosemary in less than full sun, keep it in less than full sun for the
>summer, as well.  If your indoors site is really dim, keep the rosemary in
>deep shade during the summer.  These sturdy plants are a lot more
>light-sensitive than we expect.
>
>Oh, yeah, don't overwater them.  I lost my then-5-year-old "mother" plant
>(the one I took all my rootings from) this past winter from too much care.
>The roots rotted.
>
>Anyway, in spite of all of my warnings, enjoy your baby!  I love rosemary and
>currently grow six varieties (two prostrate, four upright, flowers in
>various shades of blue).  And I'm looking for pink-flowering and
>white-flowering varieties, as well--prostrate *or* upright.  And enough money
>to have the window over my kitchen sink replaced with a second greenhouse
>window! ;-)
>
>BTW, rosemary makes a good houseplant bonsai, if you have the patience.  (I
>let my last one dry out, darn.)  And also nice live Christmas trees (upright
>varieties only).
>
>Catherine (Zone 5, alpine desert) (definitely not native rosemary climate)
>
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