How To Propagate Rosemary | Rooting Rosemary Stems In Water
Rosemary is about the easiest plant to grow from cuttings. All it takes is a little know-how and a whole lot of patience to propagate all the rosemary you could ever want.
I never thought I liked rosemary until I tried the rosemary sourdough loaf from Whole Foods and now I’m obsessed with trying to make my own rosemary sourdough bread. Rosemary is also delicious in this rosemary sourdough pizza crust. It’s super easy too!
Watch How To Root Rosemary In Water:
I cut my rosemary stems from my mama’s huge plant that I gave her for Mother’s day about 4 years ago. It has the most wonderful flavor and aroma. I can’t wait to have my own almost never ending supply of rosemary right out in my herb garden.
Is Rosemary Easy To Root?
Yes, incredibly easy! Growing rosemary from cuttings is so simple that it actually feels silly to be writing a whole post and recording a video dedicated to the subject. But knowledge is power, so here we go.
The keys to rooting rosemary successfully: select the tender green ends for your cuttings and change out the water for fresh every day. I also always root my rosemary in a windowsill so I’d recommend that as well.
In the photo above you can see how I’m taking the cuttings from the soft, new growth of the plant instead of the woody, older growth like in the two pictures below. You DON’T want the woody stems.
One of the best things about growing your rosemary from cuttings, other than the fact that it’s free, which is pretty awesome in and of itself, is that you’ll end up with a literal clone of the established plant that you take cuttings from.
The reason that this is so great is that if you get cuttings from a plant close to your home, you’ll already know that your baby rosemary plants will thrive in your location and weather conditions. This is a huge plus!
How Long Do Rosemary Cuttings Take To Root?
This is where the patience comes in. Rosemary cuttings can take anywhere from 2-6 weeks to grow roots once placed in water. There’s no instant gratification here so if that’s what you’re after, you’d be much happier buying a plant from a nursery.
How To Propagate Rosemary From Cuttings Step By Step:
- Cut 5″-6″ long shoots from your established rosemary plant. You want to be sure to select the new, soft, tender green shoots and avoid the older, hard, brown, woody stems.
- Strip the leaves from the bottom half of your cut stems. It’s important to keep them right side up!
- Place in a cup of water ensuring that the water level stays below your leaves.
- Dump old water and refill with fresh every day. This keeps the stems from rotting.
- Be patient! It can take anywhere from 2-6 weeks to see your first tiny roots starting to form.
- After you have a decent start to your roots, harden the plants off for about a week and then plant in a sunny place with well draining soil.
Print The Instructions For Rooting Rosemary:
How To Root Rosemary Cuttings In Water
Equipment
- Establshed rosemary plant with fresh, green growth
- plant clippers
- Small jar or glass
Ingredients
- fresh, soft rosemary clippings
Instructions
- Cut 5"-6" long shoots from your established Rosemary plant. You want to be sure to select the new soft, tender green shoots and avoid the older, hard, brown, woody stems.
- Strip the leaves from the bottom half of your cut stems. It's important to keep them right side up!
- Place in a cup of water ensuring that the water level stays below your leaves.
- Dump old water and refill with fresh every day. This keeps the stems from rotting.
- Be patient! It can take anywhere from 2-6 weeks to see your first tiny roots starting to form.
- After you have a decent start to your roots harden the plants off for about a week and then plant in a sunny place with well draining soil.
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Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you have astounding success in your rosemary endeavors!
Need some clarification, what do you mean by keeping them the right side up for step 2?
Also, how do you harden the plant in step 6?
I’m trying to propagate store bought rosemary but the leaves keep turning brown within two or three days.
Hi! I’m sorry for such a late reply…I recently had a baby and am just getting back to the blog.
So for step 2, you want to keep the rosemary cutting from getting put in the water upside down. So you want to keep the top of the cutting up instead of it getting flipped upside down. For hardening off, you just take the new rosemary plant outside after you’ve planted it for a short time a day, gradually increasing the amount of time outside each day. Rosemary is a pretty hardly plant so not as susceptible to wilting as more tender plants like tomatoes if you don’t take the time to harden them off properly before planting. The only thing I can think of for trying to root the store bought rosemary is that maybe it’s been dried our for too long before trying to root it. Definitely try to find some fresh. Some growing local to you that you know will do well in your area is even better!