Monday, 20 May 2013

Herbal - Rosemary


Rosemary is a versatile herb. It is especially good with lamb and mutton. Use it with vegetables, in pea, spinach and minestrone soups. Use it boiled with potatoes. The leaves can be used to make tea. The flowers can be candied.
 
The common rosemary, Rosmarinus Officinalis, is an ever-green shrub which will grow as high as seven feet despite the legend that the plant never grows taller than Jesus Christ was when on earth. It is said also that when a plant reaches his earthly age, thirty years, it will grow no taller, only wider.
 
The flowers are a lovely blue and smother the stems in late spring. The more you cut rosemary the better but this means taking only sprigs. If you cut it back hard into the old wood it is likely to die.
 
Rosemary thrives best in a light, dry soil, in a sunny position. Do not plant it in wet or heavy soils. It can be raised from seed sown in spring in open soil. But the best means is from propagation of six inch long cuttings taken in summer.  

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