On Todays 5minute Friday, with a new video layout, we are going to show you how to take Rosemary Cuttings.
Mid-February is a really good time to take Rosemary cuttings, especially this year as it has been a little milder, so we have soft foliage. Firstly, by feel mainly, you can see this foliage is nice, soft and new, and generally better for cuttings. If we look a little further down the plant, you can see the stem turn quite woody, which is great, as it’s a lovely healthy plant, but we prefer to take cuttings from the soft foliage.
If you are really lucky Rosemary will flower twice a year, almost certainly in early spring. This one is flowering, and if you look closer, there are lots of buds, but they are the same colour as foliage, so a little harder to show you by video.
We are looking to avoid any stems that have flowers on them, or any buds at all. Today I am working with 3 Rosemary varieties, ginger, foxtail and officinalis, which a lot of you will know as standard rosemary.
We use Rosemary a lot in our kitchen, it’s so versatile from flavouring soups, stews, roasting veggies, meats, fish and often for infusing oils, a few sprigs in your cooking oil bottle will transform even a simple omelette into a tastier dish.
Rosemary is one of the most used herbs in the world, for both it's flavour and health benefits.
- Take a reasonable size cutting, checking stem is not flowering or has buds, just soft foliage. I will take 2 from each of the plants.
- Fill the cell tray with a nice well-draining compost, this has bits of bark in it, rosemary being a mediterranean plant, likes drainage.
- Stamp the tray down, this will get rid of any air gaps, the refill any gaps almost to the top.
- Using your preferred method make a fairly large hole, then place the cutting in and gently tuck it in, not compacting it, just firming it down. Repeat for all your cuttings.
- Give it a nice water, and then it needs to be kept at room temperature, definitely not outside yet, perhaps a nice dry windowsill, keep it moist, and before you know it, it will start rooting.
