Miss Jessop's Upright Rosemary Plants

Miss Jessop's Upright Rosemary Plants

Miss Jessop's Upright gets called "Hedge Rosemary", but she's equally good as a shrub in a mixed border.

Wild rosemary plants have a tendency to sprawl with age: they still make a decent low hedge with attentive clipping, but Miss Jessop's Upright, or Erecta, is made for the job.

This gloriously structural evergreen shrub is a useful herb, providing aromatic rosemary needles all year round for use with roast lamb, in soups, casseroles, and even in sweet bakes.

Bees adore the pretty pale lavender-lipped flowers that appear in late Spring. There is really so much to love about this handsome, reliable plant, which will please your eye, your nose, your palate and your wildlife.

Features

• Better hedging than wild species
• Uses: casseroles, roasts, with lamb and in some sweet bakes
• Taste: aromatic and oily
• Harvest: all year round
• Storage: use fresh; can be frozen and dried
• Height: 1.5m
• Colour: pale blue flowers in spring
• Spacing: 1.5m
• Life: perennial, evergreen
• RHS Plants for Pollinators
• RHS Award of Garden Merit

Growing Rosemary

A Mediterranean native, rosemary is happiest in a really sunny spot and on poor but well-drained soil. So, if in doubt, dig in plenty of sharp sand or horticultural grit when planting, and don't worry about feeding.

If you are on heavy clay, the best thing to do is to either grow this plant on a high point in your garden - where water doesn't collect in Winter - or in a large pot. Being evergreen, it is an ideal subject for a container.

All rosemarys (ies?) are happy in coastal gardens, and whether inland or by the sea they can be used as informal hedging.

Keep your plant(s) in shape by snipping aromatic sprigs year-round. Use them in cooking, salads, infusions, your bath, flower arrangements, pot-pourri and rosemary bags (like lavender bags but with...)

Garden Design Ideas

Good companions include other herbs in the poor, sharply drained soil camp, such as lavender, oregano, and thyme.

Upright Rosemary is a nice lush shrub for a sunny spot, making a fine, fragrant ornamental hedge, or dotted among your perennials for easy evergreen architecture.

Plant herbs in recycled wooden wine containers or sensual terracotta (always in fashion). Rosemary is ideal for containers near your back door or around seated areas where it can be enjoyed.

It makes a brilliant partner to cottage garden perennials, providing year-round structure and greenery toward the middle of a border among sun lovers such as Russian sage, catmint, roses, sisyrinchiums and sea hollies.