If you ask me, you can never have too much Rosemary. But with notoriously tricky seeds, how else can you grow your own easily? Well, I’m here to show you how to easily take cuttings from your established plants with a little help from Envii SeaFeed rooting gel.
Rosemary is one of my absolute favourite herbs which I use a lot in cooking. The fantastic thing is that, being an evergreen shrub you can harvest all year round.
But the plants aren’t just fantastic for eating, they are great for insects too. The bluey purple Spring/Summer flowers attract all sorts of bees to your garden.
Originating from the Mediterranean, they prefer well-drained, sandy soil and plenty of light. Although they are relatively hardy, they may not tolerate strong frosts, so younger plants might need some protection but mine seem to survive anything!
The best way to ensure that you can keep your plants going, to replace woody plants or just increase your plant numbers is to take cuttings in Autumn! Read on to find out how…
What you need – Sharp snips or a knife, multipurpose peat-free compost, perlite, horticultural grit, pots, rosemary plant (not in flower), Envii SeaFeed rooting gel.
- Snip off a 10-15cm, piece of fresh green tissue from your mature rosemary plant. Prepare your cuttings immediately after taking from the plants.
- Cut the stem at the bottom just below a node, where a pair of leaves come out.
3. Remove the majority of the lower leaves from the stem to leave it nice and clean.
4. Make up a gritty potting mix consisting of 50% compost, 25% horticultural grit and 25% perlite and fill some deep pots with mixture. A nice loose potting mixture ensures that Oxygen can get to the newly forming roots.
5. Pour some of your Envii SeaFeed rooting gel onto a spoon and dip the base of your cuttings into the gel. The gel ensures a really smooth coating over the stem!
6. Place your cuttings into the pot by placing them at the edge. I usually stick to 4 cuttings in a 8cm pot.
7. Water your pots and place somewhere out of direct light in a propagator with a lid or place a plastic bag over the top to keep in the moisture.
8. Ensure the cuttings don’t dry out but too much water will cause them to rot. Roots should form in a few weeks.
Envii SeaFeed rooting gel is an organic rooting gel with a fantastically thick consistency able to cover the stem cuts on your cuttings to encourage early growth of roots which are then supplied with nutritious seaweed to build a strong and healthy root system. Check out their website here for more info!
Rachel's allotment gardening blog 