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dying rosemary

this is my grandmothers rosemary plant. have had her for a few months now and 3 days ago i went on vacation and came back to it turning brown. the leaves are still flexible but i don't know how to save her! i cant loose her! shes got too much meaning to me! i used to take leaves from her when i was younger and make potatoes and fried chicken with her! PLEASE HELP!!!!!

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    4 questions for clarification, sorry! Does the pot you have it growing in have a functioning drainage hole at the bottom? Are you keeping it indoors or outside? Have you moved it from outside to indoors, or the other way around recently? and last, how long has it been in this pot?
    – Bamboo
    Nov 23, 2018 at 11:03
  • yes. it has a drainage hole. its an indoor plant because it'd die if i put it outside. its been in this pot for 7 days.
    – Annie lamb
    Nov 23, 2018 at 17:07
  • the plant got crispy this morning but i took a cutting and i hope it lives
    – Annie lamb
    Nov 23, 2018 at 17:08

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Rosemary is pretty resilient. I had one plant that had dried out from lack of care when I was away and it recovered after a few months. Just needed to water it.

Pick the pot up and if it feels light, give it some water. Yours doesn't look dead.

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  • its too late. the plant has gotten crispy this morning.
    – Annie lamb
    Nov 23, 2018 at 17:08
  • i took a cutting so i can have a new plant
    – Annie lamb
    Nov 23, 2018 at 17:09
  • Rosemary cuttings take ages to propagate.
    – Graham Chiu
    Nov 23, 2018 at 20:25
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Unfortunately, keeping it indoors won't do it any good - Rosemary is a mediterranean herb, so it expects to be cold or very cool in winter, and have hot summers. It likes full sun exposure, regardless of the time of year, and does best in free draining, gritty soil. It does need watering, but watering well when its in a pot, with any excess allowed to drain away freely (none left in an outer tray or pot after 30 minutes), and only water when the surface of the soil feels just about dry to the touch. It's hard to tell whether this was a watering issue, poor drainage, damage to the roots when it was potted up, or simply being kept indoors.

If its gone crispy this morning, it may be a goner, but just scrape back the surface of the bark with a fingernail near the base - if that's still moist, it may recover, but move it somewhere as cool as you can possibly manage, preferably in a spot with sun.

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  • i brought it to the plant store said it was because of root rot. they said to do the same thing and to get another one just in case. i went to the store where she bought it and they gave me a discount because she was their best customer. she went there almost daily. they gave me one for free and i bought another one. they really stand by their products. she was 6 years old so i think it was time to get another one. i think they're like lavender as after a certain time they just give up and need to be replaced, right?
    – Annie lamb
    Nov 23, 2018 at 19:07
  • "after a certain time they just give up " - well, we had a rosemary bush in the garden (in the UK) which was at least 50 years old. It got no tender loving care at all, except for fairly brutal pruning when it started to grow over the path next to it. (It might still be there after 80 years, but I haven't lived there for a long time!)
    – alephzero
    Nov 23, 2018 at 23:05
  • really? i was told that after 4 years (much like lavender) it needs to be replaced as it gets to woody to handle and i thought it died because it was 6 years old. i had no idea they could live for that long
    – Annie lamb
    Nov 24, 2018 at 4:40
  • They can and do live a long time - in the ground. In a pot, with care and potting on into larger pots, I had one for 10 years, but OUTDOORS... got rid of it in the end because it got too big. It survived two very bad winters, but I'm also in the UK...
    – Bamboo
    Nov 24, 2018 at 12:37

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