Struggling to Establish Rosemary

Good evening Kevin. I really cannot answer that as I am not in the UK. But here in Portugal I dig a hole, put a little compost in then water the hole, plop the plant in, cover with soil, water again ... and Bob's your Uncle.

 

Dig a hole twice as big as the pot, chuck in some fresh compost and mix it around a bit with the loose soil in the hole, plant rosemary, firm in, water thoroughly, like a full watering can. Optionally mulch with bark chips or anything else on top.

The point of the hole twice as big and mixing with some of the garden soil is to avoid a hard transition from compost to soil, because sometimes when you don't do that the plant makes little effort to spread its roots. The point of the initial thorough watering is to make sure the roots are nicely hydrated while it settles in. You won't need to thoroughly water it every day, just once, then a normal watering routine until it gets going.

People often fear drowning rosemary because once established it doesn't need much water. We should bear in mind it's native environment, in poor quality stony ground in the Mediterranean region. It will go a long time without water once established, but when it rains in that neck of the woods, it rains. So such plants are perfectly used to being thoroughly soaked once in a while.

 

Hello @Victoria

Thanks for the Reply.

I think that I shall do the same, hopefully, the new Rosemary will thrive.

Thanks

Kevin

 

I had a Rosemary bush in my garden for more than 20years and never watered or fed it just gave it a clipping with shears once a year.
It is tough as old boots, but one plant I had in a pot outside during the freeze last December died.
Probably a combination of wet soil frozen solid for over a week.