Update...
My Rosemary plant is still alive!
I think this year I will start some cuttings and leave some outside next winter (heavilly mulched) and see if they survive.
Wintering Rosemary Indoors
P.S.
When I plant it (or set it out in the pot) outside in the Spring should it cut it back?
If so, how much?
TamTam...I bought a package of herbs for cooking at the supermarket. Included was sprigs of rosemary. I dipped 2 in roottone and in a little clay pot with damp soil, stuffed them in a plastic bag, put them on heating pad, both took root, so I removed the bags. I now have them out on the enclosed porch where it is warm during the day, but chilly at night. I'm thinking of trying other herbs from the supermarket now.
Peg
Yesterday my husband and I drove to Shipshewana Indiana an Amish community in Northern IN. For those of you who are familiar with Shipshewana and Greenfield Herb Gardens they are up for sale MUCH to my dismay. Unless somebody takes over the business its over with. It is one of my very favorite places to buy unusual herbs and perennials. WAAAAA! I'm SO bummed out! :(
Anyway...we usually visit in the spring-summer but decided to go there yesterday for a ride and lunch.
Some of the downtown shops were closed and of course the one that had 3 HUGE potted Rosemary plants sitting in the store front window was closed or I would of barged in to ask them what their secret was.
They were quite woody and bushy and looked quite healthy. I'm hooked...I want more Rosemary but must find the secret to wintering them indoors.
Mine is right in a sunny east window. Its alive but the new growth is spindly.
Chesapeake - I am going to be checking out my grocery store herbs, for sure!! I think you got mighty lucky - AND you have a wonderful green thumb! If I find some sprigs I will let you know, and I'll do it the same way you did - how clever to use the heating pad!! You'd love my plastic baggy "hammock" hung w/thread from my kitchen light for jiffy pellet babies, ...whatever WORKS!!! :)
CottageRose, I have never bothered to cut my rosemary back at all when it makes the trip back out to the garden every spring. Somehow it just survives! Gotta love those persistent favorites, eh?
Thanks for your input LL :)
There is a great article on rosemary in this month's Heirloom Gardener, the magazine that Jere Gettle puts out from Baker Creek Seeds. It talks about a variety that is hardy to zone 6, and some others not so willing to live in the frozen north. I highly recommend both the article and the magazine, and the seed company for that matter! This is the page in the Garden Watchdog:
http://davesgarden.com/gwd/c/14/
The hardy cultivar is called Arp, I believe, but the magazine is downstairs and I am upstairs. If it isn't, I post later. Unfortunately, they don't sell rosemary at Baker Creek
From the Garden Watchdog, again, No Thyme Productions offers both plants and seed!
http://www.nothyme.com/SearchResults.cfm?StartRow=1&MaxRows=10&Criteria=rosemary
They have wonderful veg plants, too, and very reasonable! Good source!
Yes the hardy variety of Rosemary is "arp" which I think is hardy to zone 5.
I'm going to get one this year.
Thanks for the info Kathleen. :)