Cajunrider
Imperial Masterpiece
Potted a rosemary today. Beside minimal prune, nothing is done to the top. What should I do with this?
Need advise on the rosemary
- Thread starter Cajunrider
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Potted a rosemary today. Beside minimal prune, nothing is done to the top. What should I do with this?
Vin
Imperial Masterpiece
Wrong time of the year to be repotting Rosemary. Keep it out of the sun for a few weeks and hope it makes it. Rosemary do not like wet feet so easy on the watering.
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Cajunrider
Imperial Masterpiece
Vin
Imperial Masterpiece
If you only slip potted it then it will be fine.
RobertB
Chumono
When is root work suggested for rosemary?
Vin
Imperial Masterpiece
The easy answer is never. However, you can lightly "adjust" the roots in the Spring.
Cajunrider
Imperial Masterpiece
VincentRosas
Seedling
The bonsai is a delightful and fun plant to have around the home or office.
Leo in N E Illinois
The Professor
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Rosemary has a notorious reputation as being a ''difficult'' shrub to keep happy. As a garden plant, you stick it in the ground and if it is happy it lives forever, if not happy it won't survive the summer. In a flower pot or bonsai pot they are tricky. You are in Louisiana, you have a better chance of good luck with it than myself in the Chicago area. I'd tell you what to do but all my rosemary have died, so best not to offer much advise beyond what I have already said.
JoeH
Omono
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I just got a couple half dead ones at Lowes for 10 Cents each. I had to cut out all the dead branches and or plants. Ended up with 4 plants in two pots. One I left alone the other I split into two. I guess I'll see how they take it.
12/19/19, how are they doing. I also live in zone 9a/b, ocala. Thanks, for any information, looking to start one also.
StoneCloud
Omono
I'd like to get this one out of this nursery pot and into a pot half the depth and l little wider. If I take the root ball and cut it in half with a saw, one cut and don't disturb the part I'm keeping at all, do you feel in your experience that it'll make it?
I've successfully taken cuttings, I've hacked them all the way down with no problem, and I've "up-potted" them as I've always worked with smaller trees, wanting to grow them bigger. Mostly due to the fear of reducing them to get them in a pot. I've just read so many versions of repotting these that lead to death I'm now scared! haha!
Only because I'm partial to this tree as I feel the natural lines it shows have great potential and I don't want to go to hard on it.
But with them being so finicky is it even possible to fully repot a Rosemary from nursery soil to better soil in one sitting? Has anyone achieved this?
Vin
Imperial Masterpiece
@StoneCloud I will give you my honest opinion. I've only been working with Rosemary as bonsai for about seven years so maybe someone else with more experience and can offer further insight. I think cutting the root ball in half is way to aggressive and you will most likely kill it. Sometimes the decline is within weeks after a repot and sometimes it takes a year or so. A pot closer in size to the one it's currently in would be a better choice.
If you really want to use your selected pot you could try freeing up some of the roots and spreading them outward in the new pot which may give it a much better chance. Use soil that drains well but is very heavy on the organic side. That's what Rosemary grows best in.
BTW all six of mine are back in the ground as of last year and doing great. I may try to pot one of them up again this year but it will be in an oversized pot for what we consider to be acceptable in bonsai. They just don't like their roots confined. Every time they start to decline I put them in the ground and within a year they gain their vigor.
rollwithak
Chumono
So there is no way to effectively reduce a Rosemary rootball? I wasn’t going to keep this in this size pot…. 
BeepBeepBonsaiSheep
Chumono
Interesting info. I have some creeping Rosemary I got on sale for $3 and hoped to keep them for a while. Really nice trunks
One has already gone downhill for no reason (the second pic). All watered the same amount. The others are happy and one has started to dry and lose leaves. Too bad because it was a nice one
One has already gone downhill for no reason (the second pic). All watered the same amount. The others are happy and one has started to dry and lose leaves. Too bad because it was a nice one
Attachments
Ruddigger
Omono
I’ve found that the small leaf prostrata variety respond better to bonsai work.
ABCarve
Masterpiece
The Rosemary Thread
Hello all I've threatens to do this and I'm now following thru. There doesn't seem to be a lot of horticultural info here on growing rosemary as bonsai. I'd like to change that with this thread. I don't pretend to know much about their horticulture but I've kept a few for over twenty years...
rollwithak
Chumono
How did you work on reducing the root ball? I hear they don’t like having their roots disturbed much.
ABCarve
Masterpiece
Let it grow and then let it grow some more.
