In Basket: November 2011

Dear Herb Companion,

I READ CALEB Melchior’s September 2011 article “Yes, You Can … Grow Lavender” with interest. I have been searching for the lavender variety ‘Grosso’ for several years. Can you suggest a source to purchase plants or seeds? Love the magazine.

—Frances Hedeman, Dubuque, Iowa

‘Grosso’ is a cultivar that cannot be grown from seed. Look for the plant in the spring at a local nursery. Otherwise, try mail-order nurseries Nichols Garden Nursery (www.nicholsgardennursery.com) and Richters (www.richters.com). —Eds. 

MY ROSEMARY IS turning brown and dying. It’s about 5 years old and was gorgeous; we have not changed its care. We did recently have several days of much-needed rain. I live in  southern Louisiana. I tried to cut some of it back and fed it with Miracle-Gro, but it seems to continue to turn yellow and die. It was 5 feet tall and about 3 to 4 feet wide; I cut about a foot off.

—Deb LeBlanc, Lafayette, Louisiana

It’s difficult to know for sure what’s happening with your rosemary, but here is our best guess. 

Yellowing leaves are usually a sign of water issues, and in your  situation it could be either overwatering from the recent rain, which may not have been able to drain properly, or a drought reaction from before the rain arrived, which correlates more with your description of everything turning brown and dying. The best thing to do is to try and make sure the soil can drain well and prune the dead branches. Consider adding liquid seaweed diluted in water to try to boost your rosemary’s root health, which can aid any struggling plant.

The other possible problem is a nutrient deficiency. If the above advice doesn’t improve matters, try working some greensand into the topsoil to give the rosemary some iron to work with. —Eds.  

ON PAGE 66 OF your September 2011 issue, there is a sidebar entitled “Growing Chinese Medicinal Herbs in Your Garden.” You must be growing a very small garden, indeed, because the height of each plant is listed in inches instead of feet. For instance, your balloon flower is described as a 2-inch-tall perennial. Mine are a bit over 2 feet tall! 

Clearly someone goofed with inches versus feet, but the miniscule garden you’ve described gave me a good laugh. 

—Mary Ogletree, Macungie, Pennsylvania

What’s the Chinese herb for embarrassment? Yes, those symbols should be for feet, not inches. We apologize. —Eds.