Allotments 4 All

Hi Guys,

I am being given 3 quite large plants all over 1ft sq and at least 2ft high.

Idealy i would like to split them up into smaller plants to use to line my raised beds.

I think its 2 early in the year so i am not sure what to do?

HELP!!

Cambourne7

I don't think you can split rosemary or lavender, but I did once see a trick used to rejuvenate a thyme bush: some soil was heaped on top of it, encouraging it to reroot from the branches. You could probably split it into several plants once it's put on some new growth.

Same thing works for Lavender Dandelion.

For both lavender & Rosemary, I'd take soft cuttings & pot them up in free draining compost & keep from geting waterlogged.

Both take very well for me.  Normally I'd say this is the wrong time of the year, but with the wet and cooler temperatures, it might not be.
Good luck.

 :) thanks for that froglets,

my beautiful white flowered rosemary is dead apart from a couple of green stems due to  flooding and the continual rain we are getting,


will take some cuttings and see what happens, I thought it was too early, but as you say it may work / shades x

Great news guys :-)

Might be a project for when i get my greenhouse put up.

When do you cut back these types of herbs for the winter do you do not bother?

Lavendar I cut back in the autumn to tidy up the dead flower heads & stop older branches getting broken in bad weather.  I trim just into this years new growth, but don't go into old wood as they will not regrow from that.

Rosemary is something I neglect apart from chopping off sprigs for cooking.  I'm sure you can freeze dry some sprigs for use over winter, but I'd have o leave that for another A4A'r to talk us through. 

Thyme I think you can trim after flowering same as lavendar, but to be honest, I treat it as a short lived plant & take cuttings in spring ( or autumn if you're in a harsher climate or on heavy soil) & keep planting new.  Thyme is usually pretty cheap & freely available so gets replaced regularly here.

This is what works for me, but I'm a bit of a haphazard gardener  :)

I am an inverterate taker of cuttings which I shove everywhere at any time of the year and just forget them other than watering when dry if they are in pots.

You have absolutely nothing to lose by doing so. I have 4 lovely rooted rosemary plants that I obtained from 20 small bits shoved in a 10 inch pot full of ordinary garden soil in April when a cat broke a branch off. I similarly have 4 hollies taken at the same time when I noticed a holly branch thrown on a compost heap by my wife a week earlier. I took about 12 and now have 3 nice variegated plants.