Rosemary collecting and care.

thumblessprimate1

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I took pictures to be certain I'm not imagining things that I want to see. The first pic is from yesterday afternoon. The second pic is what I'm seeing this morning. Someone who knows more than me should correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems my particular rosemary needed more water and a little shade. I'm going to water every other day to as frequently as daily. Summer time, likely twice daily. I think I'm getting the hang of it.
 

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Cadillactaste

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I took pictures to be certain I'm not imagining things that I want to see. The first pic is from yesterday afternoon. The second pic is what I'm seeing this morning. Someone who knows more than me should correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems my particular rosemary needed more water and a little shade. I'm going to water every other day to as frequently as daily. Summer time, likely twice daily. I think I'm getting the hang of it.

Curious if it has more to do with the reduction of roots and being potted more than anything. Your coming up on a week since collection...so the photo looks pretty good. :D
 

Cadillactaste

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Here's a snapshot. I'll get better images with more details when the sun is out. I'm planning literati with this. Lil' Rosamaria stands over 1 foot and a half right now.

I've got it wired a little funny at top b/c anyone who's worked with Rosemary knows that once branches get thick they snap easily with bending. The small bunched area of growth, I'm waiting for them to grow out. I notice that little grow can be broken and lost easily as well.

I have to figure out what to do with shari and jin on Rosemary. Looking into lime sulphur and other things. I want some natural color on the deadwood.

This rosemary was in a large pot for about 10 years as skinny as it is. Its companions are chunkier.

Just rereading your post...this was potted for 10 years...where did I get you collected it from the wild? I would imagine your good to go if they were potted to begin with.
 

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Here's a pic of my one and only rosemary bonsai. It's only been around 1.5 years or so. It's only a baby!
 

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thumblessprimate1

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Just rereading your post...this was potted for 10 years...where did I get you collected it from the wild? I would imagine your good to go if they were potted to begin with.

All my rosemary were originally a cuttings from my mother; they were planted in the large pot for until today. Roots were tangled so, I thought clean cuts would make it simple and safer than trying to separate them. Among the two that I removed from the large pot, I thought the smaller wilting one would fare better as I thought the roots were less disturbed.

Day 9, the smaller wilting rosemary is clinging to life :( Most of the foliage is brown and dying. The ones at top are still green, but not looking good.

All this mentioning of the happy bigger rosemary. I decided to give a sneak peak. It's not looking much now, but should start to looking better after some growth. It's recovery time. It lost some foliage, but doesn't look like it'll lose any more. All the young fresh green tips still look healthy.

Note: The second trunk was dead already before I collected it from an over sized pot. I think it was from being blocked from sunlight.
 

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Cadillactaste

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All my rosemary were originally a cuttings from my mother; they were planted in the large pot for until today. Roots were tangled so, I thought clean cuts would make it simple and safer than trying to separate them. Among the two that I removed from the large pot, I thought the smaller wilting one would fare better as I thought the roots were less disturbed.

Day 9, the smaller wilting rosemary is clinging to life :( Most of the foliage is brown and dying. The ones at top are still green, but not looking good.

All this mentioning of the happy bigger rosemary. I decided to give a sneak peak. It's not looking much now, but should start to looking better after some growth. It's recovery time. It lost some foliage, but doesn't look like it'll lose any more. All the young fresh green tips still look healthy.

ABCarve has rosemary...he said they do not like their roots pruned hard. So I hope both of yours pulls though. So...they were both in one pot until you disturbed their roots it sounds? Rosemary is so pretty in its own right. Wishing you luck on yours...
 

thumblessprimate1

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So...they were both in one pot until you disturbed their roots it sounds?

Yes. They were in a growing mix where the roots got very fine and stuck together like weaved threads on a piece of fabric. I'm feeling pretty confident that happy bigger rosemary will continue onward.
 

Cadillactaste

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Yes. They were in a growing mix where the roots got very fine and stuck together like weaved threads on a piece of fabric. I'm feeling pretty confident that happy bigger rosemary will continue onward.

That's good to know. So...you cut their roots apart. Like just dividing them, cutting vertically I take it...or did you also do a root reduction along with it? Such a shame the creeping one isn't doing well. But, glad to hear your confident on the bigger rosemary.
 

thumblessprimate1

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They're both the creeping variety, cuttings from the same plants. Yes, I did cut vertically, but I didn't do any root reduction on either of them.

I've been looking at some fine examples of rosemary bonsai around the web. Found some ones I like on a French blog and Peter Warren's. Though, I won't do anything physically at this time to the rosemary, I'd still like to picture how it'll turn out one day. It's not going to have that traditional juniper bonsai look for sure nor will I let it grow into a weeper. I'll keep the gnarlyness going on for sure.
 

Cadillactaste

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I must have misunderstood. I thought the bigger one was an upright. Love what nature brings to the rosemary. I totally agree...why style it in a juniper...if you can just buy a juniper? Weeping...not sure if mine will go that route or not...just letting nature take it's course...

For now...I'm turning mine so the new growth won't cover the side I chose for a front. One young growth was curling over the front of the trunk. So I turned it so it would reach for the sun in another direction. That's all I plan on doing so far...is to try and keep one trunk's view more noticeable without trimming branches of new growth.
 

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The happy rosemary is still doing well. I think It's growing. Watering mine almost every day. I water heavily if it's hot and lightly if it's a cool day like today. It's now day 17 if I'm counting correctly! Interested to see how much will grow from now until end of year. I think I'l be rotating mine around for even sunlight. It's in a spot that gets morning sunlight.
 

Cadillactaste

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The happy rosemary is still doing well. I think It's growing. Watering mine almost every day. I water heavily if it's hot and lightly if it's a cool day like today. It's now day 17 if I'm counting correctly! Interested to see how much will grow from now until end of year. I think I'l be rotating mine around for even sunlight. It's in a spot that gets morning sunlight.

Glad to hear it! Wow...you water far more frequent than I am. But, it's not that hot here as of yet. Is been torrential rain so it's back in the basement window. Getting watered about every 3-4 days. I wait until the base of the trunk seems no longer damp. But, again our weather is night and day apart.
 

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Update on my alive and happy rosemary. It's been over a month now. I moved it to a spot that gave it more hours of sunlight until about noon a week ago. Today I move it again for more sunlight and rotated the rosemary 90 degrees.

I water as to let it stay slightly moist. Recently with temps high 80s to low 90s and with windy conditions I watered moderately daily. I left it out when it rained a good deal about 3 inches at least last week one day. With cooler temps yesterday and today, I water lightly every other day or daily. I think that I can water the way I do because I have the rosemary in a colander use a good amount of pumice.

Here's something to note. Some warn against using any peat in the soil; my rosemary's rootball has got peat in there. Will I use peat in my bonsai soil for the rosemary? Nah, will play that safe.

I try to keep my hands off of it, but I fail. Anyways, I didn't mess with it too much. Here it is shiny and with a few inches of growth. Seems to grow strongest at the terminals of the, I guess they're called primary branches? One I'll take better pictures. Promise.
 

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thumblessprimate1

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Thanks, Cadillactaste. I have thought of the side in pic two as a possible front. That picture didn't come out exactly as I wanted; I would've angled it slightly differently.

What do you think of that first branch from the bottom on the left? It bothers me that it's larger and straight, without taper, and without foliage closer to the trunk. I've thought about removing it in the future, and allowing growth from above it to grow down and take it's space. It's not removed primarily b/c I didn't want to remove too much from a tree that was stressed and recovering. In the mean time, I've been seeing if i could incorporate that branch into a design somehow.

Viewing from the other possible fronts it's flaws could be lessened. Another idea is that I could attempt to bend that tough lignified branch as demonstrated by Ms Victrinia in this thread.

At the present, I think there are multiple possible fronts, and as the foliage fills out more the best front will be found.
 

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Phew! I left for a few days over the weekend and my Rosemary along with everything else are still alive and well. Rosemary is still happy and healthy. I think I'm beyond the point of worry for a while. It's one of the potted trees that I don't have to check on so frequently now. Still watering once daily or every other day.

Starting to add fertilizer now.

I haven't had any die back this month or even individual leaves turning black and falling off. Little buds are developing where there's foliage.
 
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