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Friday, March 4, 2011

Rosemary Blooms

Just a guess:  If you grow rosemary you're probably growing it for culinary purposes.  While attractive enough of a plant, it probably isn't the first plant that comes to mind when you think of attractive foliage or blooms.  But when you talk about fragrance....Wow! 

I'm one of those people that isn't crazy-crazy for the taste of rosemary (I'm working on it) but I do love the fragrance.  My hand invariably brushes across the top of any rosemary plant outside or in the greenhouse and I do enjoy the scent that quickly envelopes the area.  (This actually can be overpowering when we are in the process of taking rosemary cuttings, but is well worth the net result).

We do grow a few different varieties of rosemary for display purposes in the gardens...

Rosmarinus officinalis 'Irene' is a great plant to use perhaps in a rocky area where a bit of a cascading effect would be very nice.

We also grow a 'Shish-ke-Bob' variety that has very sturdy, upright stems which, strangely enough, are great to use as a shish kebob skewer for veggies and various cuts of meat.


Rosemary standard
But I thought you might be most interested at this time of year to see a rosemary that we have trained into a standard form--and it happens to be blooming right now.  Which is something that you might not get to see if you've tried growing these as an "annual" in your own gardens outside.  Enjoy!

Rosemary flowers