Rosemary plants are one of the easiest herbs to grow once we understood what they need.

As a novice gardener in 2015, I could not say the same as I was a serial killer of rosemary plants bought from nurseries, even though I followed their instructions of care faithfully.

I did not understand then the why but now I do.

 

  • Nursery plants are potted in cocopeat. As this medium retains water, it is not suitable for rosemary. Follow soil mixture instructions below by fellow gardeners
  • The first thing to do with commercial plants is to root cuttings while the plant is still healthy and green
  • Rosemary tolerate sun very well 
  • Can be grown outdoor as long as soil mixture does not retain water
  • Easier to grow from cutting than seeds
  • Do not need much fertilizer, use any in mild form only
  • Do not need to water every day (soil based)
  • As they grow, trim often (cut stem) to encourage bushier growth
  • Suffered roots rot easily if roots are constantly moist (soil based)

 

2018 – Current Update – WORKSHOPS Available for liquid-based herbs methods! 

 

Grow Rosemary from cutting or seeds in Singapore

 

These were thriving rosemary plants grown by fellow gardeners, outdoor, in our natural elements (rain, wind, haze) since 2015.

 

How to multiply rosemary from cuttings
2015 October 10 – Steve Teh‘s

 

How to care for rosemary
Steve Teh’s  6 years old Rosemary & Bay Leaf plant

 

Without any sunny spot to grow, your rosemary probably will look like mine.

They were transplanted outdoor as there was not much sun in my balcony gardens.

Starting from seeds was more difficult and slower.

 

Rosemary and Curl leaf parsley love sun
Rosemary and Curly Parsley – Limp seedlings after transplanted

 

Rosemary plants are easier to propagate from cuttings than starting from seeds.

My first rosemary cuttings were from Terence Low’s (NakedGreens group admin) and rooted in tap water.

 

Mar01 2016 - 11 days to root in tap water! Woody stems can still root!
March 01 2016 – Woody stems can still root!

 

2018 August 25 – From above cuttings, our plants have multiplied and still thrived today.

 

TIP – Trim often to encourage new branches. Use leaves for cooking and stems for rooting

 

Grow rosemary from cutting
Watermelon Skin Compost 30% : 70% sand & pebbles

 

How to Root Cutting Tips

Jack Yam, a member of our Facebook gardening group (SG Farming in Apartments) and admin in Urban Farming Singapore,

perfected the rooting method for rosemary and had a pictorial tutorial on how to root them.

 

Trimmed away the leaves from mid to bottom of the stem

 

  1. Rooting rosemary cutting
    Roots showed in 7 days

     

    Support the cutting so that only 1 cm of the roots’ end is in water

  2. Rooting rosemary cutting
    Healthy roots are white color

 

Rooting from living plants root faster than grocery cut herbs.

However, if cutting from a plant is not available, grocery herbs are clean and readily available in supermarkets.

 

Grow Rosemary from seeds or cutting in Singapore

 

Net cups can be used to support mature plants and prevent mosquitoes access to stagnant water.

They must fit well and sealed access with the correct fitting sponge collar.

 

 

Grow rosemary from cutting in Singapore
Mosquitoes Safe Growing

 

Propagating a cutting –  We observed that cutting root better if supported with only 2 cm of the tip in water rather than resting fully in the container.

 

Rosemary Plant Care in the tropics
Rooting without Mosquitoes Risk

 

Netcups for smaller reservoirs available in SHOP!

 

Grow Rosemary from cutting in containers
Roots Mass 

 

The more roots a cutting has, the faster they adapt to the new environment.

For example, from liquid base to soil.

 

Soil Mixture Tips

If rosemary plants are grown in areas where there is no shelter from the rain, the soil mixture must be customized to allow rain to flush out as fast as possible.

 

April 22 2016 - Rosemary cuttings can survived rain storms if the soil is prepped well to prevent water log.
2016 April 22 

 

Water by rain most of the time unless there was a dry spell.

 

Rosemary from cutting
2016 May 30

 

Rosemary plant care information
2016 July 12 

 

Propagate rosemary cutting
2016 October 25

 

Grow rosemary plant from cutting
Jan 27 2017 – After a week of heavy rainfall

 

The trick is mixing the soil, to be less soil!

More sand, more pebbles, only 30% soil, the rain/ water must flush out as quickly as it arrived.

How to get the soil mix right? Play with your mixes – Mix and match your soil one lazy afternoon, dip in a pail of water n see if it drained in one minute!

Add more pebbles etc if they do not drain well.

Lastly, the base of the pot is best lined with pebbles or rocks to aid draining as well.

Other gardeners also generously shared tips on how to propagate and keep rosemary plants thriving for years.

So my thanks to all of them for sharing.

 

 

Rooted in liquid, Grow in liquid (HYDRO, using nutrients)

As fussy they are in the soil and needed the right mixture to prevent waterlogging, they thrived even better in liquid base.

For our indoor gardens in 2018, we are growing more plants (herbs, vegetables, lavenders, strawberries, etc) in liquid base as they are lighter than soil and do not strain our windows.

 

Hydro Rosemary Journey from cutting –

 

Grow fresh herbs indoors
2018 August 18 – rooted in 4 days

 

Rosemary Plant Care in the tropics
2018 September 03

 

Rosemary Plant Care in the tropics
2018 December 11

 

TIP – Pruning ( cut stems ) will encourage new shoots leading to better growth. 

 

Rosemary Plant Care in the tropics

 

 

Rooted in liquid, Grow in Soil Method

Sthh Sthh (Trevor) from Plant Community Singapore shared how to root Rosemary from store-bought herbs.

Step 1 – Trim away leaves and used stems for rooting

 

How to grow rosemary from cutting using store bought herbs
2015 October 8

 

It took 2 to 4 weeks for roots to show from this supermarket rosemary.

During the rooting process, tap water was used only.

Once roots showed, they were transplanted into netcup with nutrients solution.

 

How to grow rosemary from cutting

 

Sthh Sthh used his own mix of the nutrient solutions.

His recipe is NPK 21-21-21, a dash of Epsom salt, and a teaspoon of seachem flourish trace minerals into 3 liters of water.

The EC is about 2000.

 

TIP – Only roots’ end in contact with liquid

 

Rooting rosemary
Rosemary ‘s stem stayed dry in net pot while roots are in nutrients solution

 

Rooting Rosemary
Rosemary rooting pots suspended above nutrients solution

 

How to grow rosemary from cutting
Rosemary transferred to pot (Sthh Sthh’s post in Oct 2015)

 

STHH STHH also shared how he watered and adjust the soil media needed for a dry loving plant like rosemary and even lavender!

Deep Water Soak Treatment

 

How to water rosemary plant
April 25 2016 –  When the soil become dry, STHH immersed the whole pot in a basin of water. Green Culture Singapore’s post.

 

STHH STHH – How I water my rosemary and thyme, very deeply. The entire pot is submerged in a basin of water. Then the pot is lifted to drain.

If water does not completely drain in less than 1minute, your medium is too dense for rosemary or thyme.

Time to add some grit. Many options are available – sand, pebbles, perlite, whatever that aid good drainage.

If your water does not soak deep into the soil, the roots of the plants will stay close to the surface, and if so, you cannot skip watering your plants every couple days, which also increases humidity, which is a killer for rosemary and lavenders here in SG.

Deep watering helps plants to establish better roots, and watering will be required only once a week, or twice a week when it gets hot. For suspected fungal infection, or for aeration of soil, you can add a little hydrogen peroxide.

 

How to water rosemary plants
STHH – The water must drain out in less than 1 minute, also to gauge whether soil used is suitable

 

And that is how STHH keeps his rosemary plants so well.

Please remember to only water these plants when the soil is dry.

 

lavender plants care
This is how dry Sthh Sthh’s soil gets before he water the soil !!!

 

Agnes Yang on Feb 8, 2016, shared how she root her rosemary cutting (from a live plant) –

 

Propagate Rosemary
Feb 8 2016 – Agnes Yang’s Rosemary rooted in half strength seaweed liquid feed, 7 – 10 days to see roots.

 

How to multiply rosemary plants
February 9 2016 – Recycled plastic bottle to root Rosemary stems 🙂

 

Ms. Yang used a syringe to draw a small amount of this and she also said, ”  I’m using a diluted seaweed solution.

Cheaper than rooting hormones and works well as continuous support even after potting thorough watering with it”.

 

SOIL MIXTURE Tips from gardeners

Steve Teh (Plant Community Singapore, Dec 8 2015) – Compost: perlite: coarse sand: rice husk. The ratio is 3:1:1:1.  Some limestone powder added in the mix for a higher alkaline levels.

If rice husk is not available, then add more sand and perlite.

Coarse sand is from nursery and not the beach as the latter contained salt.

If beach sand is used, it need to be washed first to rid of salt.

Veronica Yuen (SG Farming in Apartments, Jan 2016) – ” It require good drainage, use 50% perlite, 25% compost, 25%potting mix. Water once or twice a week.”

Terence Low, Naked Greens – 1:1 top soil and other part perlite, pumice or sand will do.

Guanster Guan ‘s soil mix formula, please click on the hyperlink.

All in agreement that Rosemary are sun lovers.

Just don’t love them too much with the watering.

 

How to plant rosemary cutting
Steve Teh’s rosemary sought the sun aggressively!

 

Rosemary plants needs
Chef Donny Tan’s rosemary plants at his doorstep

 

ROSEMARY IS USEFUL! 

As a herb, it can be used raw in salads, as its scent adds an aromatic experience to raw vegetables.

In this plate, Chef Donny Tan created a beautiful tomatoes and grapes salad with rosemary.

 

How to grow Rosemary in Singapore
Eye pleasing and delicious

 

Rosemary Seasoned Salt for culinary purposes.

To make this, just dry baked sea salt with rosemary leaves and kept in airtight containers.

When bottled in beautiful glass jars, these are elegant gifts as well.

 

Rosemary Plant Care
Rosemary seasoned salt

 

Rosemary salt can be used with baked potatoes or lamb seasoning.

HAIR and SCALP TREATMENT

 

Grow Rosemary from seeds or cutting in Singapore
Extracting Rosemary Oil

 

Rosemary extract can be made by submerging the leaves in vodka.

When vodka is not available, I still preferred to use a mortar and pestle to prepare my herbs for home remedies or seasoning over the electrical equipment.

 

Grow Rosemary from seeds or cutting in Singapore
Pound leaves with coconut oil

 

For hair treatment, herbs leaves are removed from the cutting and pound in oil.

Coconut oil is the best but any light oil is fine as well.

The mixture can be applied to hair as is or warmed for hot treatment.

For oily scalp, we can opt-out the oil, and instead mixed with suitable conditioner and then apply.

 

Grow Rosemary from seeds or cutting in Singapore
Mixed with conditioner

 

Rosemary Benefits

  • Soothes itchy scalp
  • Reduce hair loss because rosemary oil stimulates blood circulation on scalp, promoting hair growth
  • Anti-inflammation properties
  • Nourish hair follicles
  • Stimulate cell renewal leading to natural healing
  • Scent improve memory

After overcoming the challenges of growing rosemary, there is only happiness and satisfaction during harvest.

 

Grow rosemary from cutting in Singapore
Freshly cut rosemary smells awesome

 

Rooted herbs seedlings may be available for sale, do contact via SHOP.

 

Rosemary Plant Care in the tropics
Rosemary in liquid base

 

 

 

28 thoughts on “ROSEMARY – GROW THEM WELL”

  1. Will follow what u did. This is the only herb I have difficulty to cultivate on my balcony 😅😅😅 seeds won’t germinate, buying pots of plants will die in a week, trying to get some roots in water using cuttings, seems they are dying very soon too

  2. I’m a serial rosemary plant killer too. So glad to have your supply to attempt again. So your blog are always useful for reference 🙂 thanks Vic!

  3. Hey guys,
    Thanks for the advices in the blog. They’re really helpful! Will there be a workshop for growing Rosemaries? I’ll be really keen if there’s one!
    Thanks! 🙂

  4. Hi there

    I enjoyed reading this page and was inspired to grow some rosemary. I picked up some of this herbs from a store and followed your instructions. It has been 4/5 weeks and there is till not sign of roots. The leaves are still green. I wonder if I am should be doing something different or if this propagation works only for certain varietals.

    Thank you
    jt

  5. Hi hi, my rosemary, half of it has turned spindly and leaves curling up and yellowing a bit. Would you be able to advise what happened? Maybe I overwatered it?

  6. Also, does Rosemary like direct hot afternoon sun? My balcony gets lots of it but I’m not sure if it’s too hot for it.

    1. Rosemary can tolerate heat and sun. Their natural environment is dry ( not so humid) and hot, so Singapore is fine for them. Re watering, they can be outdoors, with no protection from the rain as long as the soil is very well draining. This means water flush out immediately, not pooling for long.

  7. Omg, I love this blog!! Thank you guys for sharing 🙂 I recently moved to Malaysia from Switzerland and couldn’t figure out why I was killing so many rosemary plants here in the tropics. It’s the coco peat! I didn’t experience this kind of soil before. After changing to a more “rocky” medium, my newly bought rosemary is looking way healthier (after recovering from the slight root damage during repotting). Thanks to everyone who shared their experience, and thanks to the Strawberry Team for putting all the info together and sharing it. Now I’m off to try some lavender 😉

  8. Hi, love website btw.

    Quick question, I recently tried Propagating store bought rosemary in water and suddenly the some leaves started to turn black. Any idea why is it turning black?

    Some say it’s due to overwatering (but I am propagating it in water) others say too much sun, and few said it was due to a fungus disease. However I change to water Everyday. Distilled water was used.

    Also, does diluted hydrogen peroxide 3% help with preventing damping off and root rot?

    1. It does depend on the specimen chosen to root. For example, if it has been harvested more than 3 days, been in the chiller before transferring to shelves etc. Knowing how to see whether there’s still living cells in stem make a difference on rooting success as well. And that’s why we have workshops.

  9. thanks for your sharing on rosemary – love this great herb and wish to have
    more knowledge on how to grow it.
    would love to grow thyme – had white spots that kill it when i tried growing them. help!

  10. I recently bought a small pot of rosemary from NTUC.

    It was green and good. After I left it in the sun for a day. It started to brown and dries up. But checking the soil it was wet. I am not sure if it is drying up because of the sun or because it is too moist and the roots are rotting as mentioned in one of the replies above.

    I can share a pic of it. I am an béginner in home gardening.

  11. The leaves of my rosemary plant are drying up and turning brown/black. I water the plant when the soil is dry which is every two to three days. Am I over watering it ? Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

    1. If the plant is a recent purchase from nurseries, the soil need to be changed to more sandy based ( cactus medium) than cocopeat. Read lavenders’ post in this blog. As they are all set in damp, water retaining medium, roots rot may have set in. Hard to reverse no matter what you do regarding how best to water. Best to re-set dry-loving plants by stems propagation when they are healthy.

  12. I recently repotted my rosemary plant when i found signs of root-rot (half of the plant started to thin and brown from the base) to a fast draining potting mix and cut off the half that was dying and the dark roots. Its been a week and I’m noticing this remaining half is also slowly thinning and browning even though i haven’t been watering them (only drained through once when i repotted). I move it under the shelter when its raining and only bring it out to get full sun but every day the plant just dies a little more. What can i do to salvage this half before it’s too late?

    Any advice would be appreciated!

    1. It can be hard to salvage a plant that has suffered roots stress from different factors ie. over watering causing roots rot, transplant etc. Stabilise the plant after transplant in shade first rather than sun immediately. If all else failed, re-root from fresh green healthy stems on the plant or grocery herbs cutting.

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