What's wrong with my rosemary?

My rosemary was healthy when it was bought for me as a gift a few months ago but it gradually developed yellow leaves with black splodges on them, which then dropped off. Some of the leaves stayed green but have black splodges on them, and a lot of the leaves developed a yellow scaly-looking splodge and have gone curly!

I've attached a couple of photos to show the leaves. The rosemary did grow very rapidly and soon became root bound when I first had it, so I potted it up to a larger pot, which it outgrew very quickly again. It's now in the biggest pot I have available so the roots can hopefully spread now, but at the moment it still looks quite awful with all the bad leaves! Could the problems be related to the period of time that it was root bound, or is there another cause?

 

Where is your rosemary growing and what size is it.
Is it on the kitchen window sill. in the greenhouse or in the garden.
Is it in a pot? and what size ?
So many variables there ! Do let us know and we'll try to help.

 

Rosemary rarely remains as green and lush looking as when they're sold. They can rapidly show signs of physiological distress because they're a vigorous plant that we tend to keep in pots and they don't like overwatering. Like Alice says, a bit more info would help.

Rosemary is pretty tough and can ususally make a come back.

 

Thank you very much for your replies.

It was in a little sunroom originally but after the first 'potting up' to the bigger pot it went outside, where it has remained ever since.

It's in a pot that is about 38 cm wide x 30 cm high. The rosemary itself is about 38 cm at widest point by about 40 cm high. It been in this bigger pot for about a week now. It's in organic multi-purpose compost. (pic attached)

At the moment the leaves that are completely yellow with black splodges are still dropping off. The scaly-looking leaves remain attached but look unsightly.

Oh dear, it was out in the torrential rain last night! :(

 

Your rosemary doesn't look too bad to me!

Commercially grown rosemary plants are raised under glass and given a big dose of nitrogen-rich feed before they're put on sale. As a result, they look very green and tempting but in reality, most will never look that good again!

I think all that soft growth is just coming to terms with living in the real world. It'll settle down during the course of the summer and probably be reasonably healthy. But it will look a bit scruffy and patchy - that's normal for rosemary which comes from the Med where it grows in poor soil and rocks under baking sun.

If you don't mind knocking it out of its pot again, it would probably benefit from a 30% mix of Perlite or vermiculite in its compost.

You can of course feed it heavily and that will stimulate the lush green growth again but it will want to grow very large indeed if you do.....

 

I think you are right about 'commercially grown' stuff.

We had a similar problem with our lovely wooden garden furniture. It looked great in the shop (including the umbrella which we later realised doesn't bend, and so is useless in the sun!). About a month after we bought the furniture, we had lots of rain (no covers for the furniture at that time) and within a month, all the colour disappeared and it has looked awful ever since. I have got fed up with sanding and treating it, covering it and storing the heavy chairs in the garage over winter. I just tell everyone now, never to buy wooden furniture and that it will never look anywhere near as good as the ones in the shop!

 

Thanks Flinty, that's a good tip about the perlite or vermiculite, I'll give that a try. A few sunny days have now dried the soil right out so I've left it dry for now. There are no more yellow and black leaves now, just the horrid scaly yellow ones, so I might try your tip about feeding it. There's room for it to grow a bit.

My other herbs were looking nice but most have been ravaged by slimey slugs just lately!! They seem to have left the chives and sage though so maybe they don't like those!

Butterfield, I know what you mean about furniture looking very tempting on display but doesn't seem to last! For the short summers we get we may as well just use a picnic rug on the lawn; least it folds away quickly!

 

Slugs usually ignore Sage and Chives. DO NOT plant Basil or other tender herbs in the ground, the slugs will reduce them to stalks in one night.

 

Ah! now I know how to attract the slugs to make hunting them easy.

New Hunting Method: Set out basil at strategic points around the garden, at about 10.30pm arm yourself with a sharp pair of scissors and a torch, patrol the basil points cutting any slugs in half, leaving the bits for the birds.

 

A friend of ours used sprigs of her Rosemary to garnish a roast lamb joint,as you do.
Then some days later noticed the plant had long blue flowers on....it seems that Lavender is quite nice on a roast dinner:D

 

A follow up question - I had a similar problem with my rosemary (and other herbs) - yellow or white splodges on the leaves. The thing is, are they safe to eat in that condition...?!

 

Rosemary needs free draining compost/soil, and it hardly needs any water. I never water mine, except in those rare hot dry spells, and even then only about once a week.

In its native environment it grows on dry rocky hillsides in the med region, where it suffers the relentless heat of the mediterranean summers, and goes weeks with no water at all, before being deluged for a few hours, and then left to dry out again for weeks.

The slight yellowing looks like its either hungry or too wet to me. Maybe some baby bio of something in its next watering, then keep it dry for long periods.

If a few leaves get black bits on, its no issue. I find they do this as they get old, and the younger leaves will be green and fresh. If a whole 'branch' starts to go brown or black, it needs to be amputated because although Rosemary is generally bulletproof, it is not immortal and there is a disease that works its way through the whole plant, causing the leaves to go brown or black and then die.

Apart from that, from the pics it looks fine, and I'd still use it in the kitchen without any qualms.

 

Your rosemary is still ALIVE :thumb:..........I have - no HAD....2 wonderful bushes in my garden, but like someone else has commented they do like well drained places to live in with plenty of that yellow blob in the sky that happens occasionally SUN!
This winter has been very wet and cold - your rosemary will recover in spring i am sure. They are usually quite hardy and i have them planted out in the garden in sunny spots and normally they live for about 3 years before they get replaced. However I will have to be getting new ones this year and will keep them in pots as you have done Carpe-diem.....even splodged yes!