Monday, January 5, 2009

Indoor Garden Guilt



I really prefer to garden outside. Outside the conditions are what they are. They are not my responsibility. As soon as the plants come inside the finger of guilt if something goes wrong pretty much points in my direction.
This "Huntington Carpet' rosemary" looked perfectly fine when it came in for the winter. Now it's starting to drop its leaves like last year's Christmas tree. At first glance I thought it might be dead. I could have dealt with that I guess. There's some guilt tossing a plant on the compost pile, but at least it's over quickly.




Closer inspection reveals that this rosemary is still with us. There are some green leaves with brown tips and even little flower buds. Now I have to deal with my guilt. What do those brown tips mean? Did I give the plant too much water or not enough? Do I strip the dead leaves or let them drop naturally? Obviously something needs to change , but what?

The first change will be a change of scenery. Like any plant that starts to look pathetic, the rosemary will be banished to the basement.Perhaps the plant will do better there. It's cooler, but not nearly so cold as the compost pile. The plant might die, but I don't have to watch!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had a plant that looked like that once, twice, too many times. I just love to kill Maidenhair ferns. I have finally given up on growing them or any plant inside.

Michelle said...

My guess would be too much water and/or fertilizer. Around here, a plant that is established in the ground can survive our rainless summers with no irrigation.

Anonymous said...

I had my rosemary outside in pots all summer and it did great. I brought it in for the winter and it is browning just like yours. One plant is completely dead/brown and the other is headed that way. I don't get it. It gets what sun there is in the winter, I keep it watered about the same (i.e. not a lot). I guess it's an outside only deal for me.

Becky said...

I won't give up having rosemary so if it dies, it dies. I will get a new plant. I have found that plain old rosemary not the fancy types does best for me.