It may depend on the variety. Some rosemary plants I've had bloom profusely, and on others I hardly ever saw a bloom.

My question, is why?

I could not get Tuscan Blue to bloom much but the Goriza (SP?) blooms a lot. I do not know why. They got the exact same cultural environment. they were side by side. I need to replace my rosemary. The last summer with its maniacal wet /dry cycle did it in.

Dan, I have a question for you. When you trimmed back your rosemary after the summer , did you just take off the dead limbs or did you also cut back the remaining live limbs to encourage more new growth. If so , how much? I am leery of adding any more stress. I took off more that 2/3 probably 3/4 of the plant. Here is the photos of the slash remnants and the remaining plant. I am not hopeful. I had this happen to two other rosemaries after the BIG drought and they did not respond. They continued dyeing . This was a very thick and well formed 5' x 6' plant.

This pile is up to my chest

Mara, much the same thing happen to a couple of my mature rosemary plants. When the dead limbs underneath green foliage were cut out the plants died. I trimmed under another one, a variety that blooms a lot where the others did not, and it was not bothered at all. I seems that some rosemary plants are extra picky about being cut back, or was it that they were dying anyway-- although I could see no reason for them to die. Again, could it be the variety?

my upright rosemary didn't bloom for maybe 5 or 6 years it grew very full no dead limbs to prune out just had to control the size height and diameter (5 feet tall and almost 4 feet in diameter) as it got bigger and bigger the prostrate rosemary bloomed the second year i just had trouble dealing with its messy look they were planted across a sidewalk from one another in the same type soil.... fill dirt from the swimming pool built 30 years before.... no fertilizer to speak of i just sort of ignored them.......

My rosemary died because of all the rain we have gotten. I am trying to grow some from seed.

Mara, no, I just trimmed off the dead limbs. Those limbs, by the way, are at least two feet long, so perhaps I should trim more aggressively to promote branching? Again, except where the hot very dry conditions killed those branches, the plants as a whole are quite healthy. What is the proper pruning strategy for rosemary?

I read somewhere that you are supposed to trim back by one third twice a year. This promotes good blooms,. I will go back and find the months but I'm thinking April and September.

At the rate my rosemary grows, cutting off a third twice a year might make the plant get smaller and smaller, and finally disappear. That is, while it grows well, I don't think it grows that fast. But that's interesting that regular pruning encourages blooms.

Do you use that much, if not I do not see the need. I also do not see why you need blooms they do not do anything for you as they are quite tiny.

in our area, we plant every plant in a raised bed everything but the cypress trees, it works great for rosemary

My upright rosemary blooms but on only a few stems. Wally_1936, the bees love the flowers and in the winter is one of the few bloomers. For those folks in San Antonio, I've always admired the hedge of rosemary at the Whataburger at 281 & Evans. It's always so nice and never leggy.

I think the idea behind the twice yearly pruning is to keep the Rosemary from getting so woody plus better blooming.

wally, I don't NEED blooms. I like them. If I wanted big blooms, I'd pull them out and put in roses.

My rosemary seemed to be dying on just one side, the side closest to the soaker hose around the foundation btw, and I cut just that side off. After that, the other side grew even better. I don't trim back my rosemary, but I've seen it done at local restaurants that use rosemary as a hedge. Their landscape crew uses hedgetrimmers on it every week to sculpt it into uninteresting squares.

I will do pruning this spring. Not necessarily 1/3, but maybe 1/4 or 1/5. Will see what happens over the summer.

Don't forget to put your Rosemary clippings in the compost pile. Great nutrients.

Not that I'd have a tremendous amount of rosemary to compost, but what nutrients does it contribute? I've heard that it and other aromatics can be pretty allelopathic.

I also read somewhere that one should not trim while the rosemary is blooming. My Gorizia barely stops blooming entirely . The remainder is covered in blooms right now. Does anyone grow "Irene"? how is it at blooming? I just planted two.

I am going to burn mine during a barbecue. I hear that they do good in the fire.

Speaking of burning rosemary, it's pretty interesting. Rosemary is considered by some to be a "fire-resistant shrub" and is in lists of best plants to defend against wildfires, since it evidently can survive fires. But it also happens to be a dangerous shrub for fires because the leaves are loaded with combustible oils. It's in many "flammable plants" lists. That latter fact leads home safety advisers to recommend NEVER planting rosemary near a house, especially if you are in a wildfire zone. I know, this is somewhat contradictory. Go figure. But hey, if it's blooming while your house burns down, that could make you feel a little better. When your house is gone, there is likely to being a surviving rosemary bush.