Pruning Rosemary

by Wendy
(Rhodes, Greece)

Hi Doug,

My Rosemary bush, grew too much out of shape. My father in law has cut the plant on one side because it was overhanging, so now I got a very bad cut on that side.

The plant became so big that it started to fall open and it started to look ugly. I would like to cut back the plant a little but I wouldn't want to damage the plant any more.

How can I make this plant get a normal shape again? How am I supposed to cut the tree, so it will get a normal nice looking shape again?

Many thanks for your advice,
Wendy

Doug says the good news is that it's really hard to kill a Rosemary by bad pruning. The plant will recover very nicely from most beginner pruning trials.

The trick is to identify the overall shape you want the plant to assume. In my case, I grow them as small trees so I prune to several branches (main trunks) and then allow the plant to get taller and make it into a tiny tree form (removing all the lower branches to make it look like a small tree).

If you want it to look quite bushy, then the deal is much simpler. You simply cut about 1/4 to 1/3 of the top growth off and the plant will throw all kinds of side shoots to bush out and fill in.

This is an easy plant to shape and grow. Remember that a cut that takes off the header - thickens it up. A cut that takes off the shoot where it started as a bud - thins out the plant. Check out this video that explains all this

And the really good news is that if you don't like how it looks with the new growth - you can redo it next year and this is one plant that will take a ton of abuse and keep on coming back for more.

Hope that helps a bit