I paid a visit to my local nursery earlier this week and bought a replacement for my poor rosemary ( Rosmarinus officinalis) that fell victim to our harsh winter. I ended up buying the exact same variety as the one that perished since I have had so many good memories with this particular one. I purchased a 4 inch ‘Tuscan Blue’. I love this rosemary because of its long stems and thick leaves not to mention I feel its flavor is one of the best out there. It has a nice upright growth that I find very attractive. The long stems of this rosemary make it excellent for use in fragrant flower arrangements. I especially like to place bundles of the stems in little jars in the bathroom to freshen the room up. The long stems are also great for making kabobs, although I have yet to try this out.

I have high hopes for this little rosemary. It really saddened my heart to loose its predecessor. With any luck it will flourish and fill my home with its unforgettable scent.

In a recent post I mentioned I lost many plants this winter. It is actually the first winter since moving up here that I have really lost any plants during winter. I try to stick with growing things that I know are hardy to my zone 8 garden and the few things that aren’t I bring indoors to hunker down and stay warm during the cold wet months of winter. My lemon verbena is one such plant that enjoys a nice little vacation indoors during the winter.

When we moved up here, over three years ago now, I brought with me one rooted rosemary cutting from the herb garden I was leaving behind. It ended up being placed in a pretty blue ceramic pot and had managed to do quite well up here. I even took some more cuttings off of it to fill the yard with.

Rosemary is one herb that I absolutely love to have growing in the garden. It is not a hard herb to grow. Occasionally I have had problems with it getting spider mites but for the most part it is pretty happy go lucky for me. Rosemary is hardy in zones 8 and up and has done just fine for me here in Oregon these past 3 years. That is until this year.

More than once when it snowed upon snow during December and January I questioned myself about leaving my pot of rosemary out on the deck. “Is it going to be okay out there with all this crazy weather?” I would ask myself. I contemplated bringing it in more than once but I know how hard it can be to overwinter rosemary indoors. It gets rather picky about getting enough light and if it is not happy it will drop all of its fragrant needle like leaves. So because of this reason I left it alone out there to fend for itself hoping all the while that I was making the right decision.

I discovered about a week ago that was a fatal decision on my part. When we had a break in the rain I went outside armed with a pair of clippers in hand. I held my breath as I carefully snipped back some of its stems hoping to find even just a hint of green inside them. My heart sank when I saw with one quick glance that there was not a trace of green, all was brown and dead. I cut farther down the branch thinking well maybe it was still alive deeper down but sadly no, the plant that I carried with me over 900 miles was lost to a freak snow storm along with its entire cloned offspring.

Isn’t it funny how we gardeners can get so attached to a plant, almost like it has become our little child? We nurture it and pamper it like a child all while we watch it grow and thrive under our care. Then it so graciously rewards us with the fruits of our labor. I used up the last bit of dried rosemary I harvested last summer the other night. It truly saddens me that I will not be able to gather more of it here in the coming months. It is one herb that I really enjoy using both in the kitchen and throughout my home.

The only good thing though about loosing a beloved plant (if there is a good thing) is now I get to go shopping for a new rosemary plant to take its place. So here in a few weeks look out Portland Nursery cause here I come!