I grow lot of my heat loving herbs in pots and then bring them in for the winter; they don’t go under my LED lights as I don’t want to introduce outdoor pests to that area. But I can usually get a few years out of a Rosemary plant by overwintering it near a window. I can have fresh herbs for cooking and any fallen needles make the vacuum cleaner smell good.
A more ambitious garden friend has taken cuttings and thinks they’ve rooted. A very few of us on the gardens list were chatting about when to pinch back and fertilize. The consensus, if you can call it that with only three people chatting, was that it was best to wait until the plants were showing signs of active growth, probably at the growing tips of the four to six inch stalks. And then someone said, could they be putting energy into buds at the end without it being evident and well, none of us seem to know the answer to that.
My potted plant from last summer is doing the opposite; it’s growing numerous but weak stems from the ends. This is the side of the plant that has been closest to the window. These weak sections do not concentrate the oils well or develop much flavor, either. I’ll cut them off when the plant goes outside this spring.
