Rosemary is a versatile and fragrant herb that comes in many different varieties. With its piney, lemon-like flavor, rosemary has become a staple in kitchens around the world. But beyond being a popular cooking ingredient, rosemary is also an attractive ornamental plant. There are numerous types of rosemary to choose from whether you want to season savory dishes or add visual interest to your garden.
An Overview of Rosemary Varieties
Rosemary, with the botanical name Rosmarinus officinalis, belongs to the mint family Lamiaceae. It’s an evergreen shrub native to the Mediterranean region. The most common types of rosemary can be divided into four main categories:
- Tall, upright varieties
- Low, spreading varieties
- Prostrate, creeping varieties
- Other rosemary species
Upright rosemary can grow over 5 feet tall with a narrow, columnar shape. Spreading types are shorter, reaching 1-3 feet in height, but spread out 3 feet or more in width. Prostrate rosemary is low-growing, usually less than 1 foot tall, and spreads along the ground. There are also a few less common rosemary species like bog rosemary.
While the typical rosemary has light blue flowers, there are varieties with white, purple, and pink blooms. Foliage can range from light silvery green to dark forest green. The leaf shape also varies, with some plants having wider, almost rounded leaves.
Popular Upright Rosemary Varieties
Upright rosemary varieties grow vertically, with some reaching tree-like heights. They make excellent landscape plants and provide lots of leaves for cooking. Some top upright types include
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Tuscan Blue – A hardy rosemary growing up to 6 feet tall with gray-green leaves and dark blue flowers. It has a robust flavor perfect for soups, stews and more.
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Arp – A cold-tolerant variety that can reach heights over 5 feet. It has light blue blossoms and a strong lemon scent.
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Hill Hardy – Growing up to 5 feet tall, this variety produces masses of light blue flowers and has good cold resistance.
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Salem – A fast-growing rosemary with a tall, columnar shape. It has a high oil content, creating an intense lemon rosemary aroma.
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Madeline Hill – Named after the Texas gardener who discovered it, this variety has excellent cold tolerance and a pungent flavor.
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Miss Jessup’s Upright – A hardy, drought-resistant rosemary that grows up to 6 feet tall with a signature piney scent.
Popular Spreading Rosemary Varieties
Spreading rosemary expands outward more than upward. The wider growth habit makes these rosemary varieties excel as groundcovers. Some of the top spreading types are:
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Benenden Blue – This variety only reaches 2 feet tall but spreads 3-4 feet wide. It has gray-green leaves and pale blue flowers in spring.
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Blue Lagoon – A fast-growing rosemary that spreads 3-4 feet wide. It produces masses of flowers ranging from light to deep blue.
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Pink Rosemary – A mounding rosemary growing 2 feet tall and 3-4 feet wide. It has attractive rose-pink blooms that appear in winter.
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Rosea – A low, spreading rosemary with light green leaves and masses of pink flowers in late winter.
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Collingwood Ingram – Named after a British admiral, this rosemary spreads 3 feet wide and bears light blue flowers in winter.
Popular Prostrate Rosemary Varieties
Prostrate rosemary forms a dense, creeping mat of foliage. These low-growing plants work beautifully as groundcovers and trailing over walls or containers. Some top prostrate rosemary varieties include:
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Huntington Carpet – One of the most popular prostrate rosemarys, this variety only reaches 10 inches tall but spreads several feet wide.
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Irene – A fast-growing, low rosemary that spreads rapidly along the ground. It has light green leaves with a refreshing scent.
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Lockwood de Forest – This variety grows just 6 inches tall but spreads 3 feet wide. The fine, dense foliage has a lovely deep green color.
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Santa Barbara – A quick-spreading rosemary that can reach 3 feet long but only 1 foot tall. It bears masses of light blue flowers.
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Blue Spires – While not technically prostrate, Blue Spires only grows 1-2 feet tall and spreads 3 feet wide, hugging the ground.
Other Interesting Rosemary Species
Beyond the common Rosmarinus officinalis, there are also some other unique rosemary species to discover:
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Bog rosemary – Andromeda polifolia is a low-growing shrub with white or pink flowers. Despite its name, it’s not an edible culinary herb.
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Canary Island rosemary – Rosmarinus eriocalyx is native to the Canary Islands and has larger leaves with a bright green color.
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Moroccan rosemary – Rosmarinus tomentosus is an upright species that can grow into a small tree. It has a dense coat of fine hairs on its leaves and stems.
Landscaping With Rosemary Plants
Our experience with using Rosemary in the landscape is extensive. It was one of the first plants purchased for the nursery. The first Rosemary plant was planted more than 30 years ago in a three-inch pot. It is now almost five feet tall and more than twenty feet wide. This small Rosemary plant gave rise to many others that were planted with it and quickly became permanent parts of our yard. The Rosemary plants only get two or three deep waterings in the summer. If we watered them more often, they might get even bigger. Summers here run about 105 degrees. One summer, this planting of Rosemary was watered only once. Even though this hurt the Rosemary plants and caused them to lose a few branches in their fight to stay alive, they were healthy and green again a few weeks after being watered. Rosemary lets you know when it is critically dry by turning yellow green. Chances are even under this extreme stress the Rosemary would not die completely.
After the first planting had been there for a few years, we added more three-inch pots of Rosemary to our 300-foot-long, sloped driveway at Mountain Valley Growers. In the beginning, we wanted the Rosemary on the driveway to form a formal hedge. Every two years the Rosemary plants were suppose to be pruned to their most upright spires. All the undergrowth was to be removed, giving the appearance that the plant just touches the ground. They were pruned this way twice over four years. Removing the sprawling horizontal growth forced more of the plant to grow upright. In the end, it made a wall about three feet high. The color display became more solid because the stems are standing together instead of spreading out in all directions. As time went on, though, the Rosemary grew wider and wider, and pruning it became too much work. The plants were then left to grow naturally. This mass planting is now going on its 34thth year. Now most of the bushes are 3 to 5 feet tall and and many reach 20 feet wide. The Rosemary stems have touched the ground and rooted in hundreds of spaces. They root like this during the wet months and survive with minimum water throughout the summer.
From late fall to early spring, our upright Rosemary’s dark blue flower makes a wall of blue color for many weeks. Visitors are often very surprised to discover the plant they are so taken with is Rosemary. Even though many have never grown Rosemary it seems to conjure up some boring picture in their mind. It’s like having never tried turnips but knowing deep down that they won’t be your first choice for dinner tonight. This might be a false belief that comes from seeing poorly taken care of plants in parking lots that are often destroyed by electric trimmers or hit by careless drivers. Perhaps, our tall regal variety of Rosemary is not readily available at the nursery where they shop. Whatever the reason, attitudes toward Rosemary change when our Rosemary driveway is in bloom.
It is tempting to say there aren’t any rules for Rosemary. It is that easy to grow. Like most Mediterranean plants, Rosemary likes to be high and dry. When you plant, pick a spot that gets full sun and has soil that is high in organic matter and drains well. If your summers are wet, try putting your Rosemary plants higher off the ground. This will help lower the humidity and improve drainage. Also, don’t crowd your Rosemary plants. With a few exceptions they are large plants and need space. This is especially important with humid summers, because it allows air to move more freely around the plant. Soil rich in organic matter and free of chemicals, should never need fertilizer. If you already have Rosemary plants and want to make the soil better, add three to four inches of compost around the base of each plant and do this often. It’s not a good idea to mulch very small plants all the way to the base. Leave three inches of bare ground around the Rosemary plant to keep it from breaking down. Wildlife on and below the ground will take your compost to the Rosemary plant’s roots and feed the plants and the soil if you don’t spray any harmful chemicals and only use organic fertilizers.
Rosemary plants can be pruned into almost any shape, or they can be left to grow naturally without being cut back. In fact, Rosemary is often used to make topiaries. Be sure to prune your Rosemary plants right after they have bloomed. As new growth occurs, flower buds for the next year are already being set. Late season pruning of Rosemary stems will cause a decrease in the number of flowers. As with any plant, dead stems or stems that are in your way, can be pruned at anytime. We have pruned Rosemary almost every season, and it hasn’t hurt the plant in any way (other than the flower loss we already talked about).
If Rosemary has an Achilles heel, it would be temperature. The ones we have done well even when it got down to 10 degrees and even 5 degrees for a short time. Most Rosemary varieties are rated for zone 8 which has a maximum low of 10 degrees. Arp Rosemary and Madeline Hill Rosemary can handle temperatures as low as -15°F, which is good news for many colder places.
In places where it gets below 15 degrees in the winter, you can either bring your rosemary inside or grow it in a greenhouse. Rosemary plants can spend the winter inside if they are grown in pots outside after the frost danger has passed. They should be brought inside before the temperature drops below 15κ. The ground naturally keeps plants warmer, so rosemary planted in pots can get colder than rosemary planted in the ground.
Rosemary grown in pots should be planted in a good potting mix that has enough texture to let air flow through it. To plant, it’s best to add 25 to 30 percent large-sized perlite and an all-purpose organic fertilizer to the soil mix. A three-inch pot of Rosemary should be placed into at least a gallon of soil. We do not recommend combining Rosemary with other herbs unless you have a really big pot. Planting perennial herbs together can make it difficult to repot when the plants become root bound.
After the risk of frost has passed each spring, move your Rosemary to a bigger pot or root prune it and fill the pot with new soil. Bring your Rosemary pot in before the first frost and give it as much light as possible. Be careful not to let it get too close to ice cold window panes. Putting fluorescent lights about three inches above the Rosemary plants and leaving them on for 14 hours is one way to show them off. Watch the water. Only water when the soil is dry. Use either a water meter or a pencil to test the soil before you water. Insert your pencil as far into the soil near the Rosemary roots as it will go. If it comes out with just a few crumbs, then go ahead and water. The plant shouldn’t be shocked, so don’t put the pot on a saucer of water. Use water that is room temperature. After the threat of frost has passed in the spring, move your Rosemary pot outside by slowly letting it get used to the weather. Place the container in a sunny location and give it a few more hours of sunlight each day.
Rosemary: Black Gold, Herbal Tea
If you cut Rosemary without gloves for any length of time, a black resin will stick to your fingers. Actually, it is oil. And, for lovers of Rosemary this oil is as good as gold. It is this black gold that gives Rosemary its aromatic, flavorful, and healthful properties.
Mountain Valley Growers has more than a thousand different kinds of herbs and perennials, so it might seem hard to pick a favorite. But for me, Rosemary is the clear winner. Disappointed? If you knew Rosemary the way I know Rosemary, you wouldn’t be. The uses for Rosemary are endless. It’s versatility and ruggedness make it the perfect California landscape scapegoat. In cooking, Rosemary is perfect for everything from soup to dessert. Along with these new health benefits, scientists are learning more about the chemicals that make up Rosemary’s “black gold.”
5 different types of Rosemary
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