In the Bay Area, with a few houseplant exceptions, I repotted any time I wanted. :)

I would definitely repot that rosemary. “Cleaning up” the roots and giving them a nice trim (rather than an entire legit root pruning) would be good, and giving it a significantly larger pot while you’re at it (or are you putting it in the ground?). You’ll have to ease up on watering compared to right now since you would have more soil to hold more water than now in its root-filled state.

You can take tip cuttings from all branches. Just pinch off what you need and you’re good to go.

I don’t like repotting mint so I usually go from seedling to final pot location. The thyme — repot as you would rosemary. I don’t recall any problems with repotting thyme.

You can pot, pot up or repot whenever you want. The June caution is only for houseplants and even primarily directed at those growing tropicals and semi tropicals in colder climate areas.

I buy plants from time to time year round and pot them up when I receive them. Most never blink at this activity, although they may not immediately start to push out new growth. If very rooty and congested, I slice off the bottom 1/2 inch or so of the root ball and loosen the sides as best I can. Sometimes it takes sluicing the root ball around in a bucket of water to properly loosen the roots and clean off the remaining soil.

Thanks - super helpful! I'll probably wait until this cool/rainy weather breaks and repot the herbs when we get a sunny stretch.

Also, just to make sure I undestand, are you saying that even for houseplants (incl tropicals), there's no need to wait till June to repot? I'm a little unclear on why your climate zone would matter to houseplants in a climate-controlled environment. I've been in plenty of homes in colder climate areas that are kept hotter throughout the winter than my home in CA.

Maybe this is worthy of a new thread on the houseplants board?

I think it is due mostly to the fact that their growth season is different than is typical for more temperate hardy plants....... late spring/early summer into late fall or early winter. Little if any dormant period. And most plants from temperate climates - like the rosemary - start their growth quite early.

I repot whenever I get to it or the need arises - the calendar does not play much of a factor nor have I seen it have much of an impact :-) I tend to do much of my repotting of any outdoor containers in spring - I certainly do not wait until June - that is far to late in the season!! But if I need to do a lot of root pruning, I generally will do so earlier, as the plant is just about to emerge from dormancy. But even that is situation-dependent. I have done root pruning in midsummer as well and with equal success.

That whole wait till June thing is ridiculous. Even for z5-6 houseplants. It would just be like planting anything.. As long as the weather is good go for it. I'll be repotting my rosemary in a couple weeks. I don't want to disturb all the flowers right now.