Salvia rosmarinus 'Prostratus'
Trailing Rosemary
Common names: Hanging Rosemary, Matting Rosemary
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Spacing
- 50 cm, rows 60 cm
- Lifespan
- Perennial
- Harvest
- Jan–Dec
- Hardiness
- Hardy down to −8 °C
- Water need
- Low
Photo: Miguel Angel Masegosa Martínez · CC BY 2.0 · Source
This description was machine-translated.
Description
The trailing rosemary cultivar 'Prostratus' grows low and overhanging rather than upright, making it ideal for wall crowns, container edges, and sunny slopes. Its needle‑like leaves are as aromatic as upright rosemary, seasoning roasted vegetables, potatoes, and stews.
Care instructions
Plant trailing rosemary in lean, well‑draining, calcareous soil at the sunniest spot and water sparingly, as it dislikes wet feet. Harvest shoots year‑round as needed. This variety is slightly more frost‑sensitive than upright types, over‑winter it in a container in a bright, cool place or protect planted mats with mulch and a protective cloth.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
HarvestJan–Dec
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
sandy, well-drained, lime-loving, lean, dry
Plant it in sandy, very well-drained soil without waterlogging. Improve heavy clay substantially with coarse sand or gravel. Lean, limy soils are ideal; too many nutrients and too much moisture harm aroma and roots, which is why it feels most at home on dry stone walls, slopes and rock gardens.
Feeding
Light feeder
Months
Mar–Apr
In spring (March/April), work a thin layer of mature compost shallowly in around the plant, with a little horn shavings if needed for more growth. It needs no more than that during the year, because too many nutrients weaken the aroma and encourage soft, frost-prone shoot growth. From August, give no feed at all, so that the shoots ripen before winter.
Overwintering
Creeping rosemary is only moderately hardy (down to about -6 to -12 °C) and does not reliably survive hard lowland winters in the bed: plant it sheltered from wind and in sun with good drainage, cover the root area with brushwood, leaves or horticultural fleece before the first frost, and avoid waterlogging. It is safer to overwinter it in a container, bright, cool and frost-free (garage, stairwell), watering only sparingly, and to accustom it to the outdoors again from March.
Propagation
Methods
- Cuttings
- Layering
The most reliable way to propagate creeping rosemary is by cuttings or layering. Both methods give true-to-type plants.
Cuttings (late spring to early summer, alternatively August/September): Tip cuttings from still soft, not fully woody shoot tips work best in late spring/early summer; these root fastest. In late summer (August/September) use semi-ripe shoot tips. Cut 10 to 15 cm long shoots without flowers. Remove the lower needles so that a bare stem of about 3 to 4 cm remains, and insert it 5 cm deep in lean, free-draining seed compost. Avoid fully woody old shoots, which hardly root. Place the pot somewhere bright and warm, but not in full midday sun. The creeping variety in particular quickly loses moisture to wind and direct sun before roots form. Keep the soil evenly slightly moist, but never wet: waterlogging makes the cuttings rot quickly. After four to six weeks the first roots have usually formed; only then pot them on into a larger pot or plant them out. Never cut during flowering.
Layering (spring to summer): Since ‘Prostratus’ naturally forms long, low-growing shoots, the layering method suits it particularly well. Bend a flexible shoot down to the ground, fix it with a stone or hook and cover the middle section with about 3 to 5 cm of soil, leaving the shoot tip free. Keep the spot moist. Once roots have formed after a few weeks to months, separate the layer from the mother piece and plant it on its own.
Sowing: Rosemary seeds are in principle viable (though slow and with a low germination rate), but this is not recommended for ‘Prostratus’. Cultivar traits (creeping habit, aroma) are not reliably passed on when sowing.
Division: Not practicable with this woody subshrub; the base is too woody for a clean root division.
Companion planting
Good neighbors
nightshade family (Solanaceae)
particularly well establishedYou will find that basil next to tomato and pepper improves taste and keeps whiteflies and aphids away.
For example PotatoTomatoSweet pepperCocktail tomatoEggplantCape gooseberry and 14 more species in the catalogue
Source: classic companion planting (DACH-Gartenpraxis)
cabbage family (Brassicaceae)
You will notice that the intense scent of basil, thyme, and others confuses the cabbage whitefly and keeps it away from the cabbage family.
For example White cabbageKohlrabiRadishKalebroccolicauliflower and 41 more species in the catalogue
Source: bio-gardening intercropping practice
Companion planting is partly traditional gardening lore. Where the reason is known, it is given.
Some of these explanations were machine-translated.
For your garden
Grow Trailing Rosemary yourself
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