Rosemary Harvests

My main rosemary plant in the front garden, has been overflowing with seed pods since it finished flowering in May (it has never flowered so well as this Spring).  So I've decided to harvest a few from the open ones and see if I can grow some from seed. The orginal plant is about 10 years old and I bought it as a small plant in local North Dublin garden centre.  I do have another younger plant in the back garden but it is bare of seeds - and this herb bed is in a settled, sunnier position.  Strange how the one that is battered and in the fume trail of the local traffic & buses is thriving.

I had similar success last year with Chive seeds and stored them in brown envelope after letting them dry out.  I have heard its alot easier to either propagate from cuttings from soft new wood from this year's growth with perennial herbs like rosemary - which I am going to try out this week as well.  I did notice my lavender and rosemary plants have alot of new shoot and are perfect to try and take a few fat cuttings.

The seeds of rosemary plants are so tiny, capsulated in a miniature furry seedpod, that opens up into a tulip shape with approx. four brown seeds inside.  From the amount of seed pods on the adult plant I could get alot of self sown as many have discarded their seeds already - in any way I hope to get more free plants !

Below is a close up of the some of the many, many seeds in an open pod :

Many happy pods!

Fingers crossed!

Happy gardening.