We’ve been buying trimmed rosemary plants at the market for several years as pre-Christmas trees for use right after Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, in our wood-heated home, they won’t last all holiday season, so they are in the house for about two weeks and then get moved out to the greenhouse.
When we began doing this almost a decade ago, we didn’t have an inkling of how the plants would do inside for extended periods, and the results were dead rosemary plants being stripped of their leaves and getting tossed.
There is so much volatile oil in a small rosemary bush that, technically, you might consider one a dangerous fire hazard. But, of course, all those rosemary leaves are full of volatiles and oils, making them an excellent herb. Those branches and stems are as well. And they are great to put on fire. Safely, please.
I am confident that the one I bought this year was about half the size of the previous rosemary plants. Yeah, everything is smaller and more expensive this year. Usually, I can put a string of lights or two and some decorations on without the plant looking like it was hung about with strange holiday excrescences. As you can see from the photo, it’s a bit overwhelmed by just two sets of lights. But it looks attractive in a darkened room.
In about two weeks, we’ll take the lights off and place it in the greenhouse for the winter. Then, in spring, I’ll repot it, and the six or so large rosemary plants we’ve grown will line the garden edge. We never have a shortage of rosemary, and the plants make attractive additions to the garden.
Musing on the question on decorating the holiday home? Try one of these rosemary plants with some lights and decorations,
Don’t have a greenhouse? A sheltered porch should do. And you’ll gain an ongoing source of rosemary for your kitchen.
I love rosemary. Such a generous plant: grows easily and abundantly, nice to cook with, adds a nice scent to the hearth, and abundant with oils- thats why the bottled rosemary essential oil is so affordable. Love your little tree- looks perfect 🙂
We have rosemary at The Back and it’s absolutely wild and rampant at the moment. Sometimes the leaves look a little speckly and dull – do you know what that is?
Rosemary won’t survive the Massachusetts winter outside. So we have to keep it sheltered. Ours seems to be free of what you describe.
I read this a few days ago but was interrupted before I could leave a comment. I brought my rosemary inside at the first frost along with the lavender and succulents. My house is not particularly warm so they should do well enough till next spring. I love the scent of rosemary and the two bushes I had in Oregon were so huge, I had to keep trimming them back. I couldn’t give away enough of it. My daughter even put bunches of it in her shower to wake her in the mornings with that fresh scent. Good luck with over wintering it.