Miss Jessopp's Upright Rosemary Plants

'Miss Jessopp's Upright' Rosemary Plants

Miss Jessopp's Upright is that glorious combination of evergreen structural shrub and useful herb. Plus it has pretty pale lavender lipped flowers in late spring that the bees go crazy for. And an RHS Award of Garden Merit. Really, there's so much to love about this handsome, reliable plant, which will produce aromatic rosemary needles all year round to use with roast lamb, in soups, casseroles and even sweet bakes.

Browse our herb and veg collection.

Features

• 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 Award of Garden Merit

Growing Rosemary

A Mediterranean native, rosemary is happiest in a really sunny spot, on poor, sharply drained soil. So dig in plenty of sharp sand or horticultural grit when planting, especially on clay soil, and you won't need to worry about feeding.

It is happy in coastal gardens, and can be used as an informal hedge.

Keep snipping the aromatic sprigs all year round.

In Your Garden Design

Good companions include other herbs in the poor, sharply-drained soil camp such as lavender, oregano and thyme.
Rosemary are great in a sunny spot in the garden – be that a dedicated herb plot or simply dotted among your perennials. A fashionable way to plant herbs is wooden wine containers: ideal for small kitchen garden areas by your back door.

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. Growing to around 1.5m tall, it's brilliant as a low hedge, too.

Did you know?

Propagated by plantsman Edward Augustus Bowles (1865-1954). It was named after his neighbour and fellow gardener Euphemia Jessopp, who first gave him the cutting.

In the kitchen, a sprig or two of those oily, aromatic needles is a must thrown into a classic Valencian paella of chicken and beans as it simmers. Or use with slivers of garlic to flavour a joint of lamb for roasting. Chopped and whizzed with olive oil, red wine vinegar and mustard, it makes a fabulously punchy dressing that's perfect with chicken salad.