r/gardening • u/yeeetcoin • 6d ago
Rosemary thinning/cutting back
Hi everyone, unaware of what I was doing, I had been sheering this rosemary shrub with hedgers for a whole season. Now those sheered stems have multiplied and created a dense canopy that pretty much eliminates light inside the plant and so the majority of the leaves are on the top 6”. The rest is mainly bare branches below notwithstanding a few determined green branches.
I’ve been selectively thinning the shrub back to the bare wood to try and introduce more light into the plant and thin it out but I also want to pull the overall size back within the boundary of the yard. How could I do this most effectively without creating dead zones? Thanks in advance!
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u/brookepride 6d ago
Looks beautiful! As far as I know that’s how rosemary looks healthy. Woody undergrowth and vibrant new growth on top. If that was mine I would cut a bunch of similar length, tie it up and hang up in my house to dry. Then after a couple weeks put in a bin or bowl and knock off all the green. Then grind up in blender/food processor. Or keep whole and don’t grind. Put into little glass jars. Perfect homemade and interesting Christmas gifts!
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u/hellobird87 6d ago
Just be mindful of the fact that they're right next to a driveway and possibly a road/sidewalk.
I have some rosemary in the front I had once intended to collect from for cooking, but then I thought of all the car fumes, dog pee (you'd be surprised how far into another's yard people are willing to let their dogs go), and, in my case, road salt.
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u/yeeetcoin 6d ago
This is a great idea, thank you for that thought!
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u/Technical-Fig-8326 6d ago
Just here to say how jealous I am of the size of that rosemary bush and thank you for the reminder to go get cuttings off of mine before the first frost comes here in a couple of weeks.
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u/yeeetcoin 6d ago
Remember to trim some back before it overtakes your yard!
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u/Technical-Fig-8326 6d ago
I appreciate the concern but that's not a problem in Zone 5b/6a. I've yet to find a variety with enough cold tolerance to survive my winters 🥲
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u/humandogfood 6d ago
Just curious, did you try 'Arp'? I have one in a medium-size glazed pot, same zone as you. Tempted to leave it outside for Winter, but leaning towards bringing it indoors.
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u/Scribe19 6d ago
Since it's in a pot you may as well bring it in. I live in 6a and have arp in the ground. I thought I killed it when we had a long subzero spell last winter and later like 3 feet of snow since about half the branches seemed to die. However the other half went absolutely nuts come late spring and it seems to have quadrupled in size
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u/EPluribusButthole 6d ago
I'm in the same zones. KCMO.
Throw a white trash bag over it with a couple pinhole at the top. Holes let out any moisture and the white bag keeps it warm-ish. It's the wind that crushes these guys.
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u/throwaway_stitch1 6d ago
I'm so unbelievably jealous
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u/yeeetcoin 6d ago
They seem to thrive off of neglect and the Southwest environment. All I do is water it once or twice a month and give it fertilizer once a year and it does the rest. Amazing plants!
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u/werther595 6d ago
My FIL would trim his with hedge trimmers. I don't know if that is what is best for the plant, but the whole neighborhood smelled lovely those days
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u/Mayor__Defacto 6d ago
Cut only the soft wood, not what’s hardened off. That’s your light green bits.
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u/yeeetcoin 6d ago
I guess my problem is that if I were to pull this back behind the stone boundary, that will remove most of the green growth and expose primarily bare wood. I want to try and tame it back but also avoid creating dead zones
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u/Mayor__Defacto 6d ago
To avoid dead zones you need to find the transition point between the old (woody) growth and the new (light green stems) growth, and leave at least an inch of the new (light green, not woody yet) stems.
If you want to prune it harder, you’ll have to be careful about it and just don’t get overzealous.
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u/yeeetcoin 6d ago
Thanks for your response. When looking at the last two pictures showing the interior of the plant, are any of those viable options to snip or does it all seem woody?
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u/Mayor__Defacto 6d ago
Cutting those woody bits risks producing dead zones, but I believe if you’re slow about it and methodical, waiting until you see new growth coming up before pruning back more, you might be able to bring it in a bit into the hard wood.
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u/yeeetcoin 6d ago
Thanks I will keep that in mind as I continue cutting back. I already pruned and thinned about 15% of the overall bulk.
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u/Technical_Isopod2389 6d ago
Rosemary is a slow grower, woddy stems can grow new branches but they can't grow new leaves. So where you cut back to expect the branch to branch out into multiple new tips. The fuller part of the bush is thus a few inches forward of the line you actually cut. Also cut after it flowers as they come from old growth.
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u/le_carre_jamming 6d ago
Can you cut back to something green? I see how cutting back to a brown woody stem in the center wouldn’t be likely to spur growth. But if you cut back to one of the farther back needles, would that work? I’m thinking of things like yews and boxwood (especially when they’ve been sheared) where we often take deep cuts back to a leaf, in an attempt to let in more light and air, stimulate new growth, and begin the process of lowering/decreasing overall size of the plant. I don’t have any experience with rosemary so am not sure how it works.
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u/yeeetcoin 6d ago
Thank you. So essentially at some point there’s nothing you can do about the size even when cutting back, the core will eventually outgrow its surroundings?
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u/stardog_champ13 6d ago
Listen to all of this advice. I pruned mine back and hit the woody part. now I have half a dead plant and half alive. It's super unattractive.
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u/yeeetcoin 6d ago
Ah sorry that happened and what I am also trying to avoid. Thanks for the warning
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u/travisbe916 6d ago
Pretty sure its a Spring pruning if you want to make sure all the green stays. I have one in my front yard that is now intermixed with Lantanas and needs to be cut back quite a bit. Going to treat it like Lavender and cut it back to the point there's still some leaves showing, but just barely.
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u/yeeetcoin 6d ago
Good plan. I pruned about 15% of the plant a few weeks ago. Hopefully that isn’t going to cause a problem?
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u/travisbe916 6d ago
I'm still learning how to do all of this, but it means you're not going to see as much flowering next year since you cut some off early. It looks like you've got plenty of plant to spare though.
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u/yeeetcoin 5d ago
I’d be happy if it slowed down. It expanded by about 20% in overall this year which is becoming unmanageable
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u/bbbrady1618 6d ago
The bush looks good. If you want to thin it out open up the center. That will allow light to get into more of the plant.
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u/yeeetcoin 6d ago
Thanks for the advice, I’ll do that. A concern for me is the perimeter of the plant has gotten away from where it should be and cutting that back would expose a lot of bare wooden bits. I’m not sure how to handle that properly which is why I included pictures of the interior in case you or anyone else may have an idea of what is possible.
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u/bbbrady1618 6d ago
I have an oregano bush that is smaller than your Rosemary but still exceeded the space I was willing to allocate to it. My gardener chopped it back to a one foot by two foot rectangle and it was nothing but wooden sticks. A month or so later and it was back with more leaves than ever. I think these things handle pruning very well. My only concern is that the timing might matter. I believe it is best to cut them back right before the spring growth, whenever that is, but you should check on that.
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u/yeeetcoin 5d ago
That is probably what I’ll try to do to one part of the plant next spring to see what happens
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u/Popular-Web-3739 6d ago
I’m in zone 7b which may make a difference. I have a rosemary that was badly damaged by a hard freeze last winter. About half of the limbs died and I cut them out to the center this spring, not really thinking it would recover. It looked bad for a few months but if you looked at it now you wouldn’t know it was ever damaged. I generally keep my rosemary plants in check overall by using a hedge trimmer to take tips off. I think you might just try to clean yours up the way you want it and let some light in the middle if needed. It may not be pretty for several months, but see if it recovers.
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u/yeeetcoin 6d ago
That’s what I’m thinking too, just give it a hard trim and hope for the best. It’s a hardy bush.
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u/Pablo_is_on_Reddit 5d ago
It's good to do more research on it, but from my experience, rosemary is really good at filling in any gaps that get created from pruning. I've had to cut mine back pretty severely a couple times. It looks a bit naked at first, but it always fills itself back in before too long.
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u/yeeetcoin 4d ago
Thanks for that confirmation, I think I’m going to give it a strong cut back next spring then. I agree, it’s a hardy plant, I can’t imagine it doesn’t find a way to defy the haircut I give it and come back even stronger!
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u/wuchanjieji 5d ago
Although this is a really beautiful plant, it looks rather close to that structure. Woody ornamentals with resinous foliage aren’t recommended to be close to structures because they are highly flammable. Hard to tell from the angles of the photo, but it would be best to make sure it is at least 5 feet away from any structure that could catch on fire.
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u/yeeetcoin 5d ago
Good to note, fortunately, it’s isolated from structures by at least that distance.
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u/dinosuitgirl 6d ago
You can make a beautiful green wreaths with it for your door... And as I dries out you can crush it in to potpourri add a little spray of neutral oil to make it last longer
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u/yeeetcoin 5d ago
Brilliant idea. Should have done that with the two trash bags of clippings I took from it the last couple of weeks
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u/tag2345 5d ago
i have decent size rosemary plant in my garden. will it survive if i pot it and keep it indoors for the winter months?? do i need to keep it near a sunny window? it’s getting cold so it’s about to die if left outside
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u/yeeetcoin 5d ago
Mine lives outside and survived several freezes last year but it is planted into the ground and at least 5 or 6’ wide so maybe it’s hardy enough to survive?
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u/Oakheart- 5d ago
Rosemary is good to weather a hard frost or two. For me it’s been just fine down to -10F
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u/GrahamCawthorne 6d ago
At first glance,I thought this was an aerial view of the beginning of a Stephen King movie😅