Before and After: Pruning the Rosemary

Right plant, right place; surely you have heard the adage - meaning make sure the plant you want will get the conditions and room it needs to perform its best. Honestly, I live by this old adage, as it's not so simple to undo mistakes or to re-arrange plants in a large garden. Plants typically have one shot here at Chickadee Gardens so I'd best do it right the first time which means lots of researching unfamiliar plants. But, when I've done my homework and planted and waited for a plant to do its thing -- and when said plant becomes a key element in my garden and it decides to go feral -- it's time for some serious re-thinking.

In 2017, I was looking for evergreen groundcovers for this hot and dry location at the edge of the labyrinth garden. The point was to have them spill over the edge down towards the gravel path. I had seen beautiful creeping rosemary in similar situations, so that became the plant of choice. I bought a flat of 4" pots of Rosmarinus officinalis ‘Huntington Carpet’ - a plant that is supposed to grow to about a foot tall and 4 - 8' wide as a low, prostrate shrub . Here's what it looked like last weekend:

That is more like 3' tall, and for the record, took a long time to actually drape down as it is supposed to.



Here it is looking at the other side. In all, nine were planted along this edge in hopes that it would drape down gracefully and cover the edge of the bed that was left as bare soil.


Flash back to 2017, this is the same shot as the first one in this post. That soil, the edge of it, I wanted covered to hide the brown dirt; plants seemed the most economical choice.

 This is the same shot from a wider view later that summer. The rosemary plants are indicated by the pink circles.


A good illustration of the ugly brown soil I wanted to cover. This is the center of the bed with four or five little rosemary plants along the edge, again, barely visible.


After three years these beasts had reached epic proportions. I have wanted to chop them back for a couple of years now but was afraid that it might kill them, forcing me to start over. But every time I looked at them I realized they were getting larger and obscuring the garden behind them, not the effect I was after. I decided to go for it, to prune them pretty hard and, if they die away, so be it. It's better than the alternative, i.e., living with something I'm not in love with that really is a focal point in this part of the garden, all nine of them. I also did some investigating about pruning rosemary. It can be done successfully, so I learned, if it's done at a time that allows for at least three months before the first frost. OK, I am safely in that window of opportunity. So last Sunday morning, I went out with two freshly sharpened pairs of secateurs and spent the better part of two hours chopping away.


I was sure to not cut into brown bare wood but down to where you can still see leaves.


I will say this, it was an aromatherapy kind of a job. I should have taken a photo of the wheelbarrow full (I mean the pile was 3' tall, no kidding) of the aftermath.


Here is the after. They look a little rough, but I am hopeful they will fill in and behave.


The other end of the bed after a good haircut.


I have been hesitant to take photographs down here because it looked a little odd. Now I can see past the rosemary and appreciate the plants behind them.





There's the garden!


Let's review: Before


After


 Before


After


Before


After. Again, a little rough but at least they are no longer blocking plants.


And I can properly see Oscar, the agave.

So why did these misbehave? I really don't know. It could be that whomever propagated them took cuttings from the right plant but took upright plant material. Or, it could be my soil and location. It might not be R. o. 'Huntington Carpet' at all. Whatever the reason, it happened, as these things do. I hope I've found a happy solution, but only time will tell. If they do reject my pruning efforts and die on me, I am prepared to rip them out and start with something else, although at this point I'm not sure what that would be. What would you have done? I'm taking a big chance here because now they are officially covering the brown wall of dirt they are spilling down. If they are no longer there, it will be a huge hole in the garden and look crummy for a very long time. It's a chance I'm willing to take.

That's a wrap for this week at Chickadee Gardens. As always, thank you so much for reading and commenting, we love hearing from you! Happy gardening!

Comments

  1. Your efforts look outstanding. I doubt they will have the audacity to die on you. You obviously have them in a primo place. I enjoyed your before and after pictures. I always forget to do one or the other. Well done.

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    1. Ha! The audacity to die on me...I LOVE that, Lisa! Thank you.

      It's effort to do before and after photos, I bet you are like me and just want to dive in and get to work!

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  2. Looks great. And it's reassuring to know that sometimes the things you plant decide to do something other than what you'd planned - that happens to me ALL the time; it seems I spend all my gardening time moving things. What was revealed behind those happy monsters is really wonderful. Are the leggy red flowers penstemons?

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    1. Indeed, plants are fabulous and can be frustrating! Don't give up, though - when the right one fits, it's a beautiful thing.

      The leggy red flowers are penstemons, Penstemon kunthii. I love those, they are such great plants. They are pretty much evergreen for us in our climate - a little shrublet.

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  3. Looks better. Now what's for dinner from some of that Rosemary!

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    1. Thank you Gail! Ha! What's for dinner....rosemary sweet potato fries? Does that count?

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  4. It looks good, Tamara. I love the way you've revealed the rest of the garden bed. We pruned back several Rosemary shrubs planted along a walkway in Astoria just a few weeks ago. Not only were they making it hard to walk between the house and the bed, they were so oversized to everything else that's been planted later on that they dominated - not the effect we want now. But of course, I didn't do before and after photos!

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    1. Exactly, Jane! Not the effect you want now - they can dominate. Rosemary is funny - it seems to either up and die or take over. Maybe you can post "after" photos without the before? Would love to see it.

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  5. It looks great now, Tamara, and I hope the plant responds well. Coincidentally, I was staring at my variegated 'Gold Dust' rosemary this monring. Planted 6 years ago, my notes say it was expected to stay small; however, it's gotten tall and gangly. I tried cutting one shrub back a couple of months ago and it hasn't responded well so at present it's on my fall list for removal and replacement.

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    1. Aaah, another rosemary behaving badly. Yes, sometimes the removal tactic is the best. What will you replace it with? Oh, the choices! :) That's a fun part about gardening, picking out new plants!

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  6. I think it looks good. Your gardens are so beautiful.

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    1. Thank you Melanie! That's very kind of you!

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  7. Nice work! I could smell that lovey aroma too...

    When we bought this place there was an old rosemary next to the neighbor's garage that was easily 5 ft tall and 6 ft wide. I cut on that thing every chance I got, sending big bundles home with anyone who would take them. I had no idea what I was doing but wanted it to be smaller. It didn't miss a beat, I don't think I could have killed it if I'd tried. Well, until the neighbor's gutter failed our second winter here and dumped rain on it all winter long. It didn't like that so much an died the next spring.

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    1. Oooh, no good on the dumping rain, that's a way to kill them if you need to, I guess.

      Anyhow, doing what you want I've found to be the best way to learn about gardening, so good for you.

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  8. Funny but plants don't seem to read their own bios. We have some oat grasses that are currently planted at the front of the border that are 5' high instead of the 2' they were supposed to be. I am sure your rosemary will respond well to it's taming.

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    1. Ha ha...plants don't read their bios, for sure! We always say around the Pacific Northwest that you should add on a foot or two to any given plant tag because things grow so well here. Sounds like you need to also!

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  9. Anonymous10:35 AM PDT

    Hi, I guess I'll be the contrarian! First I want to say that I love your garden and really enjoy seeing these posts, particularly this crazy year. Thanks for continuing with them.
    It might be good to note that I'm in a re-thinking my (much less nice than your) garden and am feeling fairly ruthless atm.

    So I actually liked the spiky contrast of the unpruned rosemary but disliked the abundance and repetition. They're so big that 4 is now too much. I feel like making them another round mound removes that spiky energy and color contrast. Yes, the other plants show but the rosemary looks beaten/devoid of energy. Maybe you need to take two out and put them elsewhere-repetition in a looser frame. It's nice to see them so abundantly happy and healthy though- and I learned something new about pruning them (gulp, right after I chopped off a big chunk growing wonky on my upright rosemary... but so far so good!)
    Also, your cats are wonderful. If it's not too onerous, please give them an extra scritch from a fan in SW Wa.

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    1. Aaah, the contrarian! That's great, I appreciate the honesty. Well, I see your point, actually. I kind of liked the spiked look but just not all in a row taking over. Repetition for me is something I love in this large of a garden, it helps to keep things grounded rather than lost in a million little fussy plants - but I hear you. Overall I don't like the way they look chopped back (they look chopped back and not natural!) but it's all an experiment after all.

      I will give the kitties a scritch - or three from you! They say "thank you anonymous fan in SW Wa. - we love scritches"

      Thank you!

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