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Post by pepperhead212 on Jan 23, 2019 14:13:19 GMT -5
Last year I got 3 Hill Hardy rosemary plants from Richter's, after my old rosemary died, after a severe cold snap, and the wind blew the cover off of the hoop house. I couldn't get out to re-cover it, and it was gone in one night! I planted two of the plants in the ground, and one in a 4 1/2 gal fabric pot, and the one in the pot took off! I figured that I would leave the ones in the ground in place, and when it got below 20º (the usual low limit for rosemary), I'd cover one with a trash can, and a brick or two, to weight it down, and leave the other uncovered, to see how resistant they really are. Naturally, I forgot to cover one Sunday night, when it got down to 11º (maybe lower - that thermometer, though away from the house a ways, is on a brick post, so it may hold some heat), and only up to 16º all of Monday, with winds up to 35 mph., and back down to 14º Monday night! Amazingly, both of the plants look fine! Not a hint of freeze damage, so this variety must really be cold resistant. I will still try to cover the one, if we have another cold spell like that. I did cover it on Thanksgiving - down to 16º , and the only other time this season that got in the teens. The sage looks worse than the rosemary, but those can die back, and grow back, and I usually cut them down to the ground, once a cold snap does them in. I cut some of this off today, for a dish I just saw a recipe for. IMG_20190123_120437972 by pepperhead212, on Flickr Here is the one in the pot, which I even brought in from my back porch, wondering if it would get below 20 there (only got to 24º, turned out). Not a great photo, due to intense sun outside, but it shows the size of it, with a 5 gal pot next to it, for a reference size. And I have probably cut off at least as much as you see there, before I brought it into the porch, and since. IMG_20190121_103422249_HDR by pepperhead212, on Flickr
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jan 23, 2019 14:52:55 GMT -5
That's great that you have found a hardy rosemary! If it turns out to be reliably hardy for you, it will be a whole lot easier to leave at least some of the plants in the ground and let them get big. Though I imagine you might want to keep one in a pot to be more accessible, so you don't have to brave the snow and cold to get a sprig for cooking.
One thing I want to try when my rosemary plant gets big (assuming it does!) is cutting off branches to use for BBQ skewers. So if your rosemary is hardy outdoors you might be able to get a plant to grow big enough to try that, too.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jan 23, 2019 15:13:36 GMT -5
One thing I want to try when my rosemary plant gets big (assuming it does!) is cutting off branches to use for BBQ skewers. I used to do that with that huge rosemary plant that I had. And Richter's actually has a variety specifically for this purpose, though it was not cold hardy. Here's an old photo, from 2015 (the plant on the right was 13 rears old, at that time), so you can see how long those sprigs got! I had just uncovered the plants, from their winter hibernation. DSCF1050 by pepperhead212, on Flickr
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Post by bluelacedredhead on Jan 24, 2019 8:30:02 GMT -5
Thanks for the tip pepperhead212, I NEED to go to Richter's this year. No excuses....
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2019 10:54:56 GMT -5
I am not sure of the variety, but my rosemary has been in the devil's strip ( between the road and sidewalk) for about 14 or 15 years at least; through drought for 6 years, heat in the triple digits every summer and full sun, buried in snow many times up to 1/2 way up the entire bush several times, and in the dry windy below 20's every winter. It's about 4 foot tall and as wide, been cut on a LOT, lol. If anyone wants some let me know and I'll send some if you pay the postage. It also tends to bloom off and on all year, used to have a picture of it blooming tiny blue purply flowers in snow!
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jan 24, 2019 11:31:13 GMT -5
You're way ahead of me again, Dave.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jan 24, 2019 13:57:53 GMT -5
I also grew Arp rosemary - the original cold resistant variety - back in the 90s. It was sort of a blue or gray-green color, and was listed as resistant down to 0°, though it died at about 5 years old at 8°, right next to my house, where it was probably a little warmer. The flavor wasn't the same, however, which I why I started the regular rosemary under cover back then.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Feb 3, 2019 13:00:56 GMT -5
Those rosemary survived, including the uncovered one! It got to 5, 6, and 9 degrees here three of the nights, and two days it did not get out of the teens, which would have killed a regular rosemary. It wasn't that cold when my old one died - just low teens. Here are both of them, the covered one on the left: Hardy hill rosemary by pepperhead212, on Flickr And a closer up of the uncovered one - a few brownish tips on some leaves, and a few turned a little purplish, but not like the dead, brown ones that extreme cold would normally cause: Uncovered hardy hill, after 5, 6, and 9° nights. by pepperhead212, on Flickr
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Post by aftermidnight on Feb 3, 2019 13:22:29 GMT -5
I've had Arp for years, my shrub is so large now I take the hedge trimmer to it every second year. Many years ago it survived a week of below 0ºf so it certainly is hardy. Picture taken a couple of months after it had a haircut in 2014, still going strong but in bad need of another haircut. Once cropped I give all the trimmings away to anyone who wants them.
Annette
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