There is a way to multiply rosemary and have it on hand endlessly, year after year.
During our lunches and dinners, more than once we have flavored our dishes with aromatic herbs which make our dishes more flavorful and fragrant.
We have many options at our disposal, from parsley to thyme, bay leaf, sage and many others, but one of the most common, especially associated with chicken and potatoes, is rosemary.
ROSEMARY: CHARACTERISTICS
Rosemary, also known by the scientific name Salvia rosmarinus Schield, grows spontaneously in the Mediterranean air along the Tyrrhenian and Ionic coasts, and is found widely distributed throughout the peninsula, especially from the Adriatic sides to Molise and the regions bordering Lake Garda.
The plant itself is an evergreen shrub that can reach a height of around 50 to 300 cm, with long, evergreen leaves 2 to 3 cm long that give off a particular and characteristic scent.
Its maintenance requires that the plant be exposed to sunny places and not cold areas, since it is not resistant to rain and cold and winter climates, and if it is kept on the balcony of the house it must be grown in soil mixed with sand.
Propagating Rosemary, How Does It Happen?
Its multiplication can be done by cuttings, that is to say, a piece of plant is cut from the mother plant and regenerated in the soil to give birth to a new plant.
And it is thanks to this method that we can obtain several rosemary plants by multiplying them infinitely without having to buy a new plant from a dealer.
Plants grown from cuttings mature more quickly than the mother plant grown from seed, as rosemary plants have quite long germination times.
On the other hand, a rosemary plant obtained by cuttings will grow and reach a usable size already a few months after being planted in a pot.
This is very important because the clone plant will be identical to the mother and will have the same taste and characteristics as the one born from seed, with the same strength and scent.
Cutting Cutting Technique
Moreover, removing a piece of plant from the main plant causes absolutely no problem for it, because removing a small piece does not create any problem for the rosemary plant, and we could fill our balcony or windowsill with as many clone plants as we wish.
To do it optimally, it is always best to cut young, green and fresh stems that are usually found at the base of the plant, avoiding those that are more brown and woody, which could be problematic both for cutting and growing.
To detach these small branches, use sharp scissors and choose a stem of at least 10 cm. It is always better to cut several if the one you have chosen is not very green or if it does not take root.
Once the small branch has been removed, remove the rosemary needles from the bottom portion, then place it in hot water in a warm location, preferably without direct sunlight.
The water contains oxygen and should be changed every two days, which tends not to damage the cuttings that will give rise to the new rosemary plants. After about 4-8 weeks, if our cuttings have survived, we will see roots on each stem.
In this case, they must be transplanted into a larger pot with sandy soil and a hole in the ground to insert the cutting, exposing it to direct light for at least 6 to 8 hours a day.
Once it has grown and reached a size of about 15 centimeters, the plant can be used and you can eventually cut new cuttings to generate others, without however harvesting more than a third of the plant, because it grows slowly.
If, on the other hand, our cuttings are brownish and the needles come off easily, this means that the cutting has not survived and that we will have to take another one to propagate our rosemary plant.
I was an intern at the editorial office. When I saw their ad for a freelancer, I decided to come back. I’m a fan of series and movies, I spend my weekends at the cinema and my nights in front of Netflix