on growing rosemary from seed

Don't do it.

That is all.

...Okay, but if you insist on putting yourself through that particular kind of thankless torture, here are a few things I learned. First of all, I was very disappointed when I planted a tray of rosemary, basil, and tomatoes. The tomatoes sprouted and grew like crazy, and the basil soon followed suit. The rosemary did...nothing. I had completely given up hope when one teeny tiny sprout emerged. Hurrah! Right? Um, well, sort of, I guess. Eventually, a grand total of four of the seeds germinated. I had planted the whole package. Yup. It has been a month since I planted the seeds, and only one of the seedlings is starting to send out its very first set of true leaves.

Feeling like a bit of a gardening failure, I did a little research. Turns out, there is a bit of an explanation.

1) Rosemary seeds have a notoriously low germination rate. While I've read about some people having 80-90% success, it is more common to have a germination rate between 5 and 15%. And it can easily take them a few weeks (I've read cases where it took up to three months) for germination to occur.

2) After germination, do NOT get excited and religiously water your delicate little seedlings. This will kill them. In fact, it's a better to wait until the soil has completely dried out to water them again. Rosemary is fairly drought resistant.

3) Be patient. Yes, I know you feel like you've already been patient, but progress is going to continue being excruciatingly slow. So if you are impatient and require near-instant gratification the way I do, you are going to be disappointed.

Personally, I am going to stick with my puny little rosemary seeds, because why toss them out now that the poor things are there, but I will be heading to the outdoor market when it opens to buy a rosemary plant. I bought a small one last year, and it did really well, and I even seem to remember feeling like it grew fairly rapidly. But I'm guessing that rosemary needs to reach some kind of critical size before it really takes off, and I'm thinking that, based on my rosemary, and photos I've seen online, that size may not be achieved for a year or more. So patience, patience, patience. I hear it's a virtue. Or, give up on the feeling of satisfaction at having created your plant from scratch and buy a small plant, like I will. On the other hand, if you want a happy compromise, rosemary is supposed to be very easy to propagate from cuttings. I will try to remember to give this a try over the summer and report back.