I wish I could help but I don't know the answer.

How fresh is it? What about trying to root some of that now? You might be able to winter it over in the window (after it roots that is).

I love rosemary too. I've killed at least 2 in pots. Probably I overwatered.

I've grown a lot of different rosemary in my day but it would take someone a lot more intimately familiar with the plant to distinguish cultivars beyond the generic classification of upright, prostrate or the mounding hybrids between the two. Flowers could help as they will differ in color and in bloom time.

All rosemary is edible, even the prostrate forms, but I have not been able to distinguish any individual flavors unique to a specific cultivar. They all taste the same to me, especially after cooking. 😊

The prostrate and mounding forms are not as cold hardy as the uprights.

@Need2SeeGreen 10 (SoCal) thank you actually. I thought as you and started a few cuttings. The sprigs were quite fresh...it might just work. I am sorry your rosemary died. Try one more time when you can fit it in. You know a lot more now, it will probably do well.

@gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9) thank you! that simplifies my life a little bit.

@CA Kate z9 Do you think it is Shish Kabob? The stems are quite strong.

I've had this plant in a pot for 4 or 5 years. I don't know if yours is the same, but this is how mine grows"

It is what I use when I want Rosemary to cook with. I have lots of shorter Rosemary growing in the rose gardens, but the scent is much stronger in those.

The habit and colour of your Rosemary, OP, look like regular Rosemary, Salvia rosmarinus, to me, rather than any cultivar. Obviously I can’t comment on the scent.

@floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK thanks! Maybe it will pop up in some nursery next spring.

@CA Kate z9 Thanks for the picture. I cant tell if the sprigs come from such a plant. What is interesting to me is that you grow rosemary with your roses?? My roses grow in soil thats essentially all organic matter from years and years of compost and organic mulching but still very well draining. And like an indulgent parent I water them copiously and they love it. I thought rosemary likes it on the dry side and not so much organic matter? These two grow well together in your garden? And these have stronger scent? I would not have thought to put rosemary with roses. Some people grow lavender with roses too.

My roses are planted in our native adobe soil and get whatever water comes their way from the lawn irrigation. Below is a photo of a rose and Rosemary by the mailbox:

I've been told that walkers frquently take snippets of this Rosemary as they walk by. And my neighbor across the street just runs over to cut a piece whenever she needs some. All is fine with me since I have to have it pruned back twice a year or it will try to cover the sidewalk up to the house. However, it blooms most of the time and the bees love it, so I'm always careful to prune when it's not blooming.

It’s not really the optimum time but you have nothing to lose trying to root some cuttings. I find short pieces root fast from either new or old wood. You could get 30 or forty from the bits in your picture. Like this. They root in days in summer. Not sure about now.

Not sure if the same everywhere, but it would be unusual to find rosemary for sale in nurseries here that is NOT a named cultivar. I don't think I have ever seen just the species for sale. Tuscan Blue, Barbeque and Gorizia are the most common cultivars sold here but Roman Beauty (a mounding form) is gaining popularity. Arp you see now and again but since cold hardiness in my climate is not really an issue it is less common.

@CA Kate z9 your composition by your mail box looks just lovely. You know, I have never seen draping rosemary in person. You have lucky neighbors!

@floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK thank you. I did start a number of cuttings, maybe a dozen or so, but in water. Maybe I will take a few of those and start with rooting hormone and place them in potting mix just to hedge my bets. Since you seem to be comfortable with cuttings: I have been hearing that rooting hormone is toxic and edibles that are grown using rooting hormone should not be consumed for at least a year. Is that really true? That makes rooting hormone sound very toxic indeed and people handle the powder or gel without gloved hands or wearing masks. ??? And is it also true that if you cut off the growing tip of the cutting it roots more easily?

Friends, I lost one of my beloved cats today. She did seem a little under the weather for a few days but nothing to be alarmed about. But yesterday she could not walk or drink water. We took her to the vet and found that a massive viral infection is destroying her liver and her red blood cells. We did everything we could but we had to say our last good bye to her today. I am walking through the rooms and cant believe I will never see her again. She has given our family so much peace and joy. She was only two years old.

I'm sorry about your kitty. I have two senior cats, so I'm getting ready for some rough times ahead. But two years old... Too soon... So sorry...

It is really hard when a part of your fur family dies. You are lucky tho' to have had her companionship... even if just for two years.

Rosemary is for remembrance ....

I hope you do manage to grow a few to remember your cat by. But I would not try it in water. The one in my picture was set directly into growing medium. I’ve never used rooting hormones so I can’t comment on that. I’ve also never cut off the tops, although once rooted you can pinch them to get them bushier.

"I have been hearing that rooting hormone is toxic and edibles that are grown using rooting hormone should not be consumed for at least a year. Is that really true?"

Highly unlikely, although that might depend on exactly what sort of rooting hormone is being discussed. Most are based on a naturally occurring plant growth hormone, IBA (indolebutyric acid), the same hormone found in willows and what makes willow water such a helpful propagation tool, however most commercial prepared rooting powders or gels use a synthesized version. It is non-toxic and can be used freely on any edible plants without concern.

I have rooted rosemary cuttings many times and follow pretty much floral's methods although I do multiple cuttings in a single larger container rather than individual plugs. Rooting hormone has never been necessary. I also take cuttings any time I feel the need and when the plant has vigorous new growth showing (which is often nearly year round in my climate). They root fast!

I only did plugs because each one was to be moved on to a module (last photo) and thence into a small decorated pot. They were to be given to guests at a wedding which, thanks to covid, had six people present rather than the hundred planned.

I'm so sorry about your cat!! It sounds like you took very good care of her though - she knew she was loved.

Thank you so much for your comforting words @JoJo (Nevada 9A), @Need2SeeGreen 10 (SoCal) @CA Kate z9. It means a lot to me. Now I am just glad she did not have a long drawn out period of suffering.

@floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK well what do you know: one of my cuttings rooted. And like you said it was the smallest one that did. This one was in water.

If you expand the photo you can see roots starting at the lower node.

I put this one in water on Sept 18th and it rooted by Oct 1. I potted it up. I unfortunately forgot about it too and it dried a little bit. I dont know if it will grow.

I did put some cuttings in soil. Some look good, no idea if are rooting or have rooted though? A few have issues. This one had its leaves turning black and falling off:

I know this one is gone. What happened? If this happens to one is it inevitable that it will happen to all the others?

Some of the cuttings have their leaves falling off:

why does that happen?

I hope I can learn what I am doing wrong and change it.

Thank you for this very helpful and fruitful conversation!

I know some poo-poo the idea, but I always water my starts with a weak camomile solution. This is suppose to keep fungus, etc. at bay. Also, if the air/soil isn't warm enough, Rosemary starts won't be happy.

@CA Kate z9 Thank you for that. What is chamomile water? the chamomile tea made from tea bags? I wont poo poo your idea. A problem I am having is that I dont know and cant quite make out what is too much water or too little water for these cuttings in soil. I also cant tell when the cuttings has rooted. when i am rooting in water, well water is just water and there is no guessing. and i can see when there are roots. there must be an advantage to simply rooting in soil and not water, I wonder what that is. I am terribly inexperienced in rooting cuttings, this season is the first time am doing it.

The room where I am doing the rootings is quite warm. I am not worried from that angle.

I make a cup of chamomile tea with some organic one-herb bags. Then I water it down a least by half. I think letting the bag steep longer allows for all the goodness to leach out of the bag. You would want to make sure your pots have drainage, then keep the ground damp but not wet.

As to when they have actually set roots: usually when you start to see new growth, but that isn't always so either. I had a Bay Leaf stem that I was trying to root. After several months it looked great, had new growth and I was confident that rooting had succeeded. NOPE. I went to replant it in a larger container and found not so much as one hair of one root.. Totally faked me out.

If you have a larger plant: have you tried pegging?

New growth doesn’t necessarily indicate root growth. You can try a gentle tug or carefully turn out the plant and see what you can see.

Thank you @CA Kate z9. I will try the chamomile water.

My difficulty is that I still cannot tell if the soil is too wet or too dry for rooting rosemary. Particularly for rosemary since it does not like to be wet yet still needs moisture to root. These are cuttings I took from some rosemary I got at the grocery store that I felt smelled particularly nice. I dont have a plant, so no pegging. Several of the cuttings I took at the same time are in water and they are just fine. No rotting and putting on some growth but no roots. Yet among the cuttings I stuck in the soil I got fungal infection. I dont get it why the stems in water dont rot just as much or worse, whether they root or not.

In the big scheme of things maybe I am being compulsive. I just want to learn.

I know what you mean about not being able to see roots - this exact thing happened to me last year with rosemary cuttings. Next time I try to root some, I will re-use one of those see-through plastic food takeout containers (like for salad dressing). I will punch a couple holes in the bottom, then cover the sides in foil so that the medium won't get any light (so it won't grow algae), but I'll be able to take the foil off after a week or two, to check for roots.

The other thing is, from now on I will probably just root in perlite. Last time, I tried to get fancy and I used turface - but that came back to bite me in the tuchus, big time, bc I accidentally got distracted and it all dried out. Big bummer. I think part of the reason I got distracted is that I had been assuming that the cutting wasn't going to take. But when I pulled it out later, after I killed it, it had had roots. (This was different from the at-least 2 rosemary plants I killed ... by overwatering.)

The advantage of the turface was that it was heavier and it held up my cuttings. Perlite is lighter and I will have to figure out how to not have the cutting move around at all. But that is more easily fixable. I can probaby just prop it up inside a bigger pot.

If you are using garden soil, that is trickier - though, it can still work. You've got drainage holes in there, right? My guess is, if it's damp, that should be enough water. Are you tenting at all?