Dead Sage

[citizentwiglet]

Aww, is it like rosemary's 'Swan Song'? That has actually made me get quite emotional......

I got a baby rosemary from a friend of mine, it's about 3 inches tall. It's leaves are nicely green, mostly, but some of them are very brown - what is this? A case of watering and scorching the leaves, or a disease? I'd say 20% of the leaves are affected, from the tip to roughly half way along the leaf. Should I remove them?
It's been in my herb border, I've been protecting it under cloche overnight when temps have been low, but I see no sign of it growing, whereas my other new herbs are happily spreading away. I must say, she was rather badly pot-bound when I got her, but I did my best to tease the roots out as well as I could. She's in typical 'poor' soil in the driest part of the garden.......

Is she a goner?

[Millymollymandy]

It's probably frost damage and I would just leave them as they'll probaly drop off eventually of their own accord. The plant isn't necessarily a goner, but you might have to be patient for a while.

I dug up some 'Greek plant' as they all looked completely dead but found that whilst it wasn't shooting or sprouting at all it had a very healthy root system so it probably would have come back eventually. I've got lots more but it looked mucky so something else prettier can go in that place!

[bobby280]

Gave up on the sage and planted a new one and will probably bring it in as much as possible over the winter. On a brighter note I have achieved wonders with my thyme and am very happy with myself and so thought I'd share the tip. For a few years I had a decent thyme bush but it was a little woody, certainly a lot woodier than the really soft, leafy, light green stuff you can use raw. Through intensive watering I now have lovely soft thyme. Result. Maybe that's obvious to you green-fingered types but I'm well chuffed.

[Millymollymandy]

Bobby it wasn't obvious to me as I've always thought it was a lot easier to use shop bought dried thyme than the woody old stuff in my garden (apart from the first flush in spring which is soft growth)! I keep a lot of my basil inside because outdoors the leaves go really tough and inedible - perhaps windowsill thyme in a pot is the way to go for culinary use and outside just leave the plant for the bees and butterflies?

[indy]

I don't have much luck with thyme, have had many plants which have died, am trying again with a new one and plenty of water having read this thread

[bobby280]

Ah, MMM, I did wonder if maybe it was just the time of year but I'm fairly sure it's never been like this in previous years. Will see if I can sustain it all year round and report back!

[Kezz]

I only just found out other people protect their mint/rosemary/sage...... Mine have all been in pots on patio for at least the last two years.... ooops......

[Millymollymandy]

My sage is looking really dead now, apart from about 5 branches which are still alive. It's about a metre wide it's so big but I wonder if I can take cutting of the live bits now? I think normally one does that in late summer. Hmmmmm. Not looking forward to digging out its roots either!

[Enormous Sage]

Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

[Millymollymandy]

Oooh sorry E Sage, I just chopped you back the other day but you've rooted yourself from one of your floppy branches so all is not lost! The rest of you looks like a bloody mess though , all dead looking stumps and a few long floppy bits with green leaves on the end where you've reverted from nice variegated to plain green. I think it is time to start again.

[Pennylane]

Funny, my sage has survived but lost bot rosemary and fucshia..which were both in the ground but in spots where the ice stayed longer than others in the winter sun...there have been a huge amount of plant casulties from this winter all around the area. I am going to try and take cuttings to keep warm and hope to replace if we get another bad one...plan for the future,see what can adapt..everything is slow here as it is still very cold, we had ice on the car last week.