EP203 - How to take Rosemary plant cuttings

On Todays 5minute Friday, with a new video layout, we are going to show you how to take Rosemary Cuttings.

Mid-February is a really good time to take Rosemary cuttings, especially this year as it has been a little milder, so we have soft foliage. Firstly, by feel mainly, you can see this foliage is nice, soft and new, and generally better for cuttings. If we look a little further down the plant, you can see the stem turn quite woody, which is great, as it’s a lovely healthy plant, but we prefer to take cuttings from the soft foliage.

If you are really lucky Rosemary will flower twice a year, almost certainly in early spring. This one is flowering, and if you look closer, there are lots of buds, but they are the same colour as foliage, so a little harder to show you by video.

We are looking to avoid any stems that have flowers on them, or any buds at all. Today I am working with 3 Rosemary varieties, ginger, foxtail and officinalis, which a lot of you will know as standard rosemary.

We use Rosemary a lot in our kitchen, it’s so versatile from flavouring soups, stews, roasting veggies, meats, fish and often for infusing oils, a few sprigs in your cooking oil bottle will transform even a simple omelette into a tastier dish.

Rosemary is one of the most used herbs in the world, for both it's flavour and health benefits. 

1. Take a reasonable size cutting, checking stem is not flowering or has buds, just soft foliage. I will take 2 from each of the plants.
2. Fill the cell tray with a nice well-draining compost, this has bits of bark in it, rosemary being a mediterranean plant, likes drainage.
3. Stamp the tray down, this will get rid of any air gaps, the refill any gaps almost to the top.
4. Using your preferred method make a fairly large hole, then place the cutting in and gently tuck it in, not compacting it, just firming it down. Repeat for all your cuttings.
5. Give it a nice water, and then it needs to be kept at room temperature, definitely not outside yet, perhaps a nice dry windowsill, keep it moist, and before you know it, it will start rooting.