My rosemary looks a little scorched – Diary of a Rocket Gardener

I planted up lots of rosemary about 5 years ago, and it has done really well growing to be very bushy and majestic! However, over the last few weeks, many of the plants have taken a turn for the worse, and I haven’t been quite sure why. I’ve been pondering several options:

  1. The soil got waterlogged and caused root rot – this is quite common for rosemary as it is more suited to well draining soil and sunny sites with little rain (as opposed to the heavy clay soil and regular rainfall that we have here in Cornwall!) Normally, I would concur that this is probably the cause, but we have had very little rainfall in the past couple of months, so it wouldn’t make sense.
  2. The plants are old and on their way out – I don’t think this is it – the plants are 5 years old, and were looking so healthy just a few weeks ago. As far as I understand, rosemary can live for around 20 years in the right conditions. But, maybe…
  3. The strong winds we had over the past couple of weeks were a bit more than the plants could handle. Again, I’m really not sure on this. On one hand, the rosemary plants that I have growing in a different part of the garden, more sheltered from the wind, are looking lovely and green and healthy. On the other hand, the strong winds are nothing out of the ordinary for my rosemary plants – they have been subjected to regular gale force winds over autumn and winter for the past 5 years!
  4. A nutrient deficiency. I guess this could be it, and I know iron deficiency can cause yellow leaves on rosemary plants, but I’d be surprised as other plants in the same beds are looking great.

So, I am none the wiser I’m afraid, but hopefully they will perk up a bit in the next few days. I’m going to prune them quite hard over the weekend and hope for the best!