• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Home Garden Joy
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Start Here
    • Seed Starting
    • Composting Basics
    • Vegetable Gardening
    • Growing Fruit
    • Growing Herbs
  • Recipes
    • Canning and Food Preservation
    • Vegetarian Meals
    • Salad Recipes
    • Soup Recipes
    • Dinner Recipes
    • Dessert Recipes
  • Books & Classes
    • Classes
    • Books
    • Books for Christian Herbalists
  • About
    • Advertise
    • Awards and Accolades
    • Privacy Policy

Grow Rosemary for Remembrance

August 17, 2010 by Jeanne

Have you heard the saying grow rosemary for remembrance? This culinary herb offers both a delight for the taste as well as the ability to help improve memory.

a picture of a rosemary plant in a pot

Grow Rosemary in the Home Garden

I love rosemary as an herb for its fragrance; it makes me think of clean, fresh pine woods and the time just before dawn when the air holds the hint of promise. It has a long and venerable history in the plant kingdom. Among the ancient Greek and Roman cultures, rosemary symbolized fidelity.

My rosemary is tucked in between the chives and oregano and as always, the oregano threatens to consume it in its mad passion to take over the raised bed entirely. Not to be outdone, the lemon balm beside it also vies for prominence. The catnip all the while laughs; although I hacked it back to the ground, it has regained its vigor, believing in the motto “what does not kill me makes me stronger.”  Even the catnip plants I pulled up by the roots and tossed into the woods managed to take hold and grow again…..I have enough catnip for Pierre and all his country cousins this year.

Grow Rosemary for Remembrance

It was also thought to enhance memory – “rosemary for remembrance” is a common folk saying. Because of its associations with fidelity, loyalty and memory, it was used at both weddings and funerals. Brides wore wreaths of rosemary and one of Henry VIII’s ill-fated brides, Anne of Cleves, wore a wreath of rosemary. Wedding guests were given a small bouquet of rosemary too, the way we give sugar coated almonds or other small gifts or favors to guests today.

Reasons to Grow Rosemary

There is some limited scientific evidence that rosemary, along with herbs such as sage (salvia) and lemon balm (melissa), enhance and improve cognitive function. Unless you are allergic to any of these herbs, it won’t hurt to add them to your cooking or brew a tea using these herbs.

Rosemary adds to lamb, fish, and chicken dishes, and the French include it in the bouquet garni so often used in Provence cooking.

How to Grow Rosemary

Soil

To grow rosemary, full sun is a must, you need well-drained soil. Sandy soil is fine, but if you have clay soil, add plenty of compost to enhance drainage.

Temperature

It’s a Mediterranean plant and doesn’t like the cold. In New York, I wintered mine over in the raised beds by using a simple homemade cloche.  Cloche is Frenchch word for bell, and a cloche is a bell like covering in the garden. Fancy ones are made of glass but here’s my frugal secret: I use empty soda pop bottles, the big 2 or 3 liter kind. I clean them will, remove the labels, and cut off the pouring and.  Then I have a nice little mini greenhouse to slip over my rosemary plants. Just remember to remove them on warmer winter days. Precooking rosemary is not recommend!

Pruning

Prune rosemary regularly to enhance its shape. Pruning encourages it to grow outward rather than tall and lanky.

Drying Rosemary

You can dry rosemary quite easily. I’ve hung up bunches of rosemary in the garage, let it air dry in the heat, then picked the thin needles off.  Best of all, tuck some fresh rosemary around the house.  If you enjoy the scent, it’s a great treat.

Most gardeners can easily grow rosemary and it’s a treat to have the fragrance and taste of fresh rosemary in the house. Add it to your garden this year and “remember” to grow rosemary!

Jeanne
Jeanne

Jeanne Grunert is a certified Virginia Master Gardener and the author of several gardening books. Her garden articles, photographs, and interviews have been featured in The Herb Companion, Virginia Gardener, and Cultivate, the magazine of the National Farm Bureau. She is the founder of The Christian Herbalists group and a popular local lecturer on culinary herbs and herbs for health, raised bed gardening, and horticulture therapy.

Tweet
Share
Pin7
Share7
14 Shares

Filed Under: Growing Herbs

Previous Post: « Even Mowing the Lawn Is an Adventure
Next Post: Garden Design: The Monochromatic Garden »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. ~Gardener on Sherlock Street

    August 18, 2010 at

    I want to try growing rosemary but I know it would have to come in the house during the winter.

Primary Sidebar

Learn Gardening!

writer Jeanne Grunert

Hi, I'm Jeanne Grunert, master gardener, gardening book author, herbalist, and writer. If you're new to gardening, welcome! I make it simple and easy for you to grow a gorgeous garden and cook with the fresh vegetables, fruits, and herbs that you grow.

Let’s Connect!

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • YouTube

Featured

logo of the american horticulture society

Home Garden Joy was featured by the American Horticultural Society on #plantchat.

My Books on Amazon

cover of plan and build a raised bed garden

Visit my author page on Amazon to find all of my fiction and gardening books.

Herbal Academy Teachers

Footer

peach tree cuttings in a pot on a windowsill

Propagating Peach Trees from Softwood Cuttings

We decided that propagating peach trees from softwood cuttings was the way to go when we couldn’t find the variety we wanted at the store this past week. The best eating peach we’ve ever grown here at Seven Oaks Farm is “Red Haven.” It was recommended by our neighbor, a man whose family has farmed…

Read More

soul in a yellow mug against pine panelling

Made From Scratch Chicken Vegetable Soup Recipe

This is the best made-from-scratch chicken vegetable soup recipe you’ll ever taste. It’s a favorite of my family and I’m betting it will quickly become a favorite of your family’s, too. As part of my ongoing quest to test and taste every recipe in the Fannie Farmer Cookbook 100th Edition, I’ve made the Vegetable Soup…

Read More

A loaf of bread on a plate

Water Bread – Recipe Review

Once you make water bread, you’ll never eat store bought white bread again. In fact, you won’t be able to look at a loaf of “white bread” from the market and consider it bread, in any sense of the word, after you’ve taken a bite of the real thing. Hot. Crunchy crust. Tender, flaky, soft…

Read More

lemon on a lemon tree

Can You Grow a Lemon Tree from a Seed?

If you’ve ever wondered can you grow a lemon tree from a seed, the answer is yes, you can. But it takes patience and time to coax the tree into producing fruit. In the meantime, you’ll have to tend a tree that wants to grow into six, seven or more feet tall. Here’s the story…

Read More

Copyright © 2022 Home Garden Joy on the Foodie Pro Theme