Does anyone have after-care advice for a collected Rosemary?

[SU2]

Well my heart was broken when I saw a local strip-mall had torn-out its mature juniper parking-lot-edging today, but things looked up quickly- found myself helping remove a couple plants for a neighbor and one of them had the most gorgeous, old & tormented trunk - turns out it was a rosemary bush, had no idea they got so big!

It was in vigorous growth but gigantic so I just trunk-chopped it and got the best roots I could, no foliage on it....any special tips for aftercare? This thing is very very nice so I really want to do anything that'd help but had never even heard of rosemary as bonsai til I got home with it, I potted it in a regular bonsai mix and have it secured in a spot w/o much direct light but plenty of filtered-light - I guess any tips on helping to encourage it to back-bud are what I'm seeking here, I googled around and they don't seem to want to bud on old wood very much, though at the same time I've googled pics of specimen that were clearly trunk-chopped (trunks way over 6" thick with foliage so low it just had to be a re-grow, though for all I know they were approach-grafted in advance of collection or something)

Have considered tenting it, or at least setting up a misting schedule - any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[Stickroot]

It’s good to use on beef as a seasoning?

 

[Carol 83]

It’s good to use on beef as a seasoning?

Also good on roasted potatoes.

 

[Stickroot]

Also good on roasted potatoes.

Oh my! I’m hungry! What’s cooking tonight Carol?

 

[0soyoung]

It’s good to use on beef as ya seasoning?

The 'secret' flavor that makes risotto sing..
Great with lamb.
Everything Mediterranean requires it.

There are three great smells in life

1. coffee beans
2. basil
3. rosemary

Actually there is a forth, but it is number one.

But, back to plants, my favorite job is pruning the rosemary that cascades over the retaining wall by my driveway. I smell so yummy afterward.


How's that for a @sorce-apery????

Or should I say, @sorce-apiary as a way to bee?

... man, that was a good merlot

 

[Stickroot]

The 'secret' flavor that makes risotto sing..
Great with lamb.
Everything Mediterranean requires it.
LMFAO! Put the Booz down sir! I should have named my daughter Merlot?
There are three great smells in life

1. coffee beans
2. basil
3. rosemary

Actually there is a forth, but it is number one.

But, back to plants, my favorite job is pruning the rosemary that cascades over the retaining wall by my driveway. I smell so yummy afterward.


How's that for a @sorce-apery????

Or should I say, @sorce-apiary as a way to bee?

... man, that was a good merlot

I screwed this reply up some how. This new site blows!

 

[0soyoung]

I screwed this reply up some how. This new site blows!

Try again.

 

[milehigh_7]

Pray often

 

[Carol 83]

Oh my! I’m hungry! What’s cooking tonight Carol?

Just grilled some brats tonight, but last night was sweet bourbon glazed pork chops.

 

[Lorax7]

1. Go to Scarborough Fair.
2. Plant it with parsley, sage, and thyme.

 

[SU2]

Pray often

Is it really that dismal? Haven't found anything harder than live oaks yet, which I've still never managed to keep alive....if Rosemary is harder than a quercus I'm going to set my hopes way lower lol.... this thing just has the coolest trunk, am so eager for it to take!!

 

[milehigh_7]

Is it really that dismal? Haven't found anything harder than live oaks yet, which I've still never managed to keep alive....if Rosemary is harder than a quercus I'm going to set my hopes way lower lol.... this thing just has the coolest trunk, am so eager for it to take!!

Live oaks are a piece of cake as long as you repot at the right time. Rosemary are damn near bulletproof in landscape but look at them wrong in a pot and they go belly up in minutes.

 

[Carol 83]

but look at them wrong in a pot and they go belly up in minutes.

I've seen it happen .

 

[petegreg]

They are very similar to conifers. Less water, careful when repotting, no barerooting and they need to be let run free before pruning.

 

[JosephCooper]

How much of the roots did you take off? Rosemary are really bad at handling root pruning. That's probably why you don't see them as bonsai

 

[SU2]

Live oaks are a piece of cake as long as you repot at the right time. Rosemary are damn near bulletproof in landscape but look at them wrong in a pot and they go belly up in minutes.

I guess it depends where you are and which type of live oaks, have heard that 10% is a 'solid' success rate by someone who's done it a while (they may've been referring to someone they knew- think it was @GrimLore though), though I'm unsure if I spoke incorrectly before because you're saying "repot at the right time", I'm talking collection...I've tried spring, summer, fall and winter while dormant, no luck (though I really did think I had one, collected in Jan '18 and started growing well in feb, but eventually died although that was likely due to a mistake I made, so I may've gotten that 1 to survive although I've easily done >10 serious attempts :/ )

Re rosemary, really sucks...will keep it a bit just in case (can't hurt right? Or is it so pointless I should just toss it to discourage breeding nematodes / things that like eating decaying roots?), thing really could've been a beautiful bonsai:




With hardwood like this it can be 1.5mo before you get budding - would you personally wait and see or would you just ditch it?

 

[SU2]

How much of the roots did you take off? Rosemary are really bad at handling root pruning. That's probably why you don't see them as bonsai

I did some minor root-pruning but it didn't really have a great root-system in the first place (while it was growing vigorously, I could've yanked it out of the ground w/ my hands if I'd tried....unsure if that speaks more to this specimen's roots or our soil though or, should I say, "our sand" lol!)

I *have* seen them as bonsai though, albeit it's rare...I google-image searched right upon getting it home and was excited to see mature-trunked specimen, though I guess you could get there in a lot of different ways (if they didn't need it moved for an AC unit I could've approach-grafted some of the lush foliage to the base and perhaps gotten it that way..)

 

[GrimLore]

I guess it depends where you are and which type of live oaks, have heard that 10% is a 'solid' success rate by someone who's done it a while (they may've been referring to someone they knew- think it was @GrimLore though)

Here all Oaks collect poorly. They do best if collected while dormant, taking all root, and only taking of the tap root. I also found that potting them in the original substrate with little root disturbance helps a lot. Still at best my notes show 1 in 4 average success... Any other method perhaps 1 in 8...

Odd thing -

If I order bare rooted in EARLY Spring and pot them up they do just fine when purchased from Southern growers like TYTY - confusing yes but I know what works for me. Also, the types I would typically order are usually Live Oaks types as I like the one with the smaller narrow foliage.

Grimmy

 

[SU2]

Here all Oaks collect poorly. They do best if collected while dormant, taking all root, and only taking of the tap root. I also found that potting them in the original substrate with little root disturbance helps a lot. Still at best my notes show 1 in 4 average success... Any other method perhaps 1 in 8...
Grimmy

Thanks for chiming in And damn, hate hearing how dismal it is in our two areas since they're such different atmostpheres - can't help but wonder if that's just a quercus thing worldwide? And thanks for the thoughts on collecting, I haven't had enough attempts to see real trends yet, but the only quercus I ever got to survive&grow was collected while dormant this past winter (then killed by a moronic mistake I made that blocked the container's drainage...thing was becoming vigorous after coming out of dormancy and then suffered, was too far gone when I realized the problem :/ )

I think 2-stepping them may be the best approach here....or do you think layering may be worthwhile? (have never layered something but want to try and there's certainly no shortage of quercus stock to work with!)

Odd thing -

If I order bare rooted in EARLY Spring and pot them up they do just fine when purchased from Southern growers like TYTY - confusing yes but I know what works for me. Also, the types I would typically order are usually Live Oaks types as I like the one with the smaller narrow foliage.

Grimmy

I didn't learn about 'whips'/TYTY til earlier this year and didn't get on it in time, next year I guess... although I may not even need to as I've started collected little quercus seedlings from my backyard, it's basically all sand (no turf) so it's easy to spot them and collect (given they slide out of sandy soil very well!), have several so far that look good but haven't continued growth, they're close to 2wks old so suspect it's just finished getting over the transplant-shock but if they make it I'm just going to push growth as best I can and have them be longer-term projects

(and yeah Live > Laurel oaks any day!! The oak I did successfully collect(then killed..) was a laurel, in past attempts they seem to survive longer than Live oaks do, Live oaks are just so much better it's not just the leaves as you mention but the bark has such deeper chasms / more character than Laurels do!)

 

[Vin]

Just grilled some brats tonight, but last night was sweet bourbon glazed pork chops.View attachment 192227

Recipe please, or it didn't happen!