👩‍🌾GARDENING TIPS👩‍🌾: Salvia rosmarinus

• • Shearing the top encourages the side branches to spread.
  • Rosemary really despises sitting in soggy soil and overtwatering so ensure that your soil is sandy, poor, and very well draining.
  • In order to harvest from the plant, the bush should be matured 2–3 years to ensure it is large enough to withstand it.
  • The rule of thumb is – take 20% of the new growth. This will allow the plant to heal and bounce back without any trouble.
  • Looks amazing with Stipa tenuifolia, Festuca glauca, Thymus longicaulis ‘Odoratus’

Learn more about gardening with Rosemary:

• • ENG: Pruning the Rosemary
  • FR: Réussir la culture du Romarin

Learn more about cooking with Rosemary (and the ever wonderful Everyday French Chef , Miss Meg Bortin)

• • • Croustillant au Chèvre-Romarin-Miel

    • Polenta au parmesan et romarin

    • Tarte chèvre-figues-romarin

    • Pêches au vin au romarin

The Tale & The Botany: Salvia rosmarinus

Commonly known as rosemary, Salvia rosmarinus is a small shrub from the Mediterranean basin belonging to the Lamiaceae family.

In 2017, on the basis of molecular phylogenetic evidence, rosemary was reclassified into Salvia.

It was actually initially published under that name in 1835 by Fridolin Karl Leopold Spenner, who had transferred the species to the genus Salvia.

Because officinalis was already in use by another plant Salvia officinalis , Spenner was obliged to use a combination name –  Salvia rosmarinus.

Beyond its many culinary and medicinal uses, it has long been believed to purify the air and ward off evil spirits, and in Mediterranean traditions it was often burned as incense.

Depending on the region and its natural habitat, Rosmarinus officinalis has developed local variations in terms of hardiness, growth habit, and flowering patterns.

Myths and Legends

The name Rosmarinus comes from the Latin ros maris or ‘dew of the sea’.

Elizabeth Kent noted in her Flora Domestica (1823), “The botanical name of this plant is compounded of two Latin words [ros marinus], signifying Sea-dew; and indeed Rosemary thrives best by the sea.”

This is one of its important powers – its tolerance to high levels of salinity both in air and soil.

It was later called Rose of Mary or rosemary in honor of the Virgin Mary.

Rosemary water is often called ‘Queen of Hungary Water’ since it is said that Elizabeth of Poland, one of the Queens of Hungary, was the first to introduce perfume (hers a rosemary-infused alcoholate) to the 14th courts in Hungary.

And one can imagine that life was much more pleasant in the court thereafter.

Floral Morphology

The plant flowers in spring and summer in temperate climates, but the plants can be in constant bloom in warm climates; flowers are white, pink, purple or deep blue.

The branches are dotted with groups of 2 to 3 flowers down its length.

Rosmarinus officinalis also has a tendency to flower outside its normal flowering season; it has been known to flower as late as early December

The plant can live as long as 35 years – I’ve known one that was older than me today – it was 40!

Rosemary has a fibrous root system- an adaptation to poor or dry soils and rocky terrain.

Other names

Trailing Rosemary

Creeping Rosemary

Prostrate Rosemary

Origin

Mediterranean