My Sage, and Rosemary keep dying and my Tarragon is weird.

[Dee_Sydney]

I just can't seem to keep sage and rosemary alive, I thought I had with my sage this time, it was looking wonderfully bushy and had lots og lovely flowers, I restrained from eating any to give it a chance to establish and them int he space of about a week it has keeled over and almost died.
It isn't in full sun but it gets quite a few hours a day and I only water it once or twice a week? Any ideas. It was a similar story with my rosemary, only it went into what seemed like hibernation for 4-6 months before it decided to keel over and die.


My Taragon however is still alive, just not thriving. It has leaves on the end of some of its branches and nothing on others and just looks decidedly sad.
Any idea would help, all of my books are rather non specific and thin on helpful information.

Thanks all.

[the.fee.fairy]

Sage needs to be cut right down when its finished. If you want to keep it for herbal use, you shouldn't really let it flower and go to seed - it'll finish a lot quicker that way. After ithas flowered (and they are beautiful and really fragrant flowers!) thn cut it right down to about an inch or so in height.

[wulf]

Funnily enough, sage and rosemary are two that seem to struggle in my garden as well. Plenty of other things grow well, so it is not a problem I have tried to hard to fix. One solution might be to find someone who can swap you fresh sage / rosemary for fresh tarragon.

Wulf

[snapdragon]

maybe it's a pH thing? My Rosemary has to be cut back regularly to stop her assaulting the postman as she invades the path
( note to self - really must try to make something of the thinnings- wool dye? oil-of?)

we're on alkaline soil here (chalk) quite thin topsoil with good drainage. Rosemary lives on the north side of the house so she doesn't get much full sun at all. Sage I keep losing too - but a bronze one in a pot in the backyard (south) seems to be surviving ok

[mrsflibble]

no idea about the herbs, but nip into your profile and tick the "show BBcode" box 'cos then the pictures will work properly... unless it's just me...!!

I did find this which may be of some interest.
http://www.gardenaction.co.uk/fruit_veg ... 3_sage.asp

[Dee_Sydney]

Thanks for the replys guys,
Still not sure what I'm going to do to fix the problem but I now have some ideas - though none for the tarragon yet so if anyone has any?

The-fee-fairy: Bugger, my understanding was that sage was a perennial bush so I thought for once I could let one of my herbs flower whenever it wanted to. I'll get out there this weekend and give it a good chopping.

Wulf: Actually. I would love to find someone who wants vast amounts of mint, oregano and thai mint, they are thriving. I've told all of my neighbours they can wander into my back yard any time they want and grab some, but no one grows sage. A wonan down the road has rosemary in her front yard and I can have as much as I want, but its the ground cover variety and I prefer the taste of the upright. Also, I like just heading out into the yard to grab my herbs on the spur of the moment, I'm really not a great one at planning the evening meals. So I'll just have to keep trying.

Snapdragon: I had never throught about ph levels. They were/are both in pots with no tray underneath so drainage should be ok but mayby I'll load the potting mix up with sand from my daughters sandpit next time I plant rosemary and I'll invest in a ph tester next time I'm at a nursery. I've never heard of a bronze sage, mayby I'll keep my eye out for that as well.

mrsfibble: unfortunately I have already ticked the BBcode box, if you know why else my photos might not be working it would be greatly appreciated. Also, thanks fot eh link, it's going into my favourites.

[Muddypause]

...if you know why else my photos might not be working it would be greatly appreciated.

It's 'cos you are not actually linking to the photo; your link is to a page which contains the photo, and so isn't actually an image in its own right. The photo itself has the url of http://lh5.google.com/donna.flood/RxaUc ... CN6557.JPG

This ends with the suffix .JPG, which means the forum will recognise it as an image and behave accordingly. If your album site doesn't provide any clues as to the url of the image itself, you can usually get it by right clicking over the image and selecting Properties. But I would suggest that you make a smaller version of it for the forum (maybe you album site has a facility for this), cos it's flipping big in its original form.

No help with your original problem, I'm afraid.

[Dee_Sydney]

ooooops, thanks Stew, I'm fixing it now.

[farmerdrea]

I've always just plopped in sage and rosemary and left them to themselves, and have never bothered to cut them back unless they get in the way of something else. In my experience, sage does have a finite life, and will usually start to die back and get really spindly by about 3-4 years. Rosemary just keeps going and going and going, but will get leggy if you don't thin and shape it. French tarragon is frost tender here, and it usually dies back and gets killed, so I've taken to potting some up and tucking it away for winter. We have very heavy frosts here, with temps below 0C regularly during the winter, and often during the spring. It's mid-spring here now, and we had a -4C 2 nights ago... that was a surprise! We had remembered to bring in the tomato seedlings, thankfully!

Herbs do best in poorer soil, not much organic matter added, and free-draining. Lots of sunlight won't hurt either. What are the growing conditions for yours?

Cheers
Andrea
NZ

[frozenthunderbolt]

nothings better than taragon vinegar, it is a tempremental bastard to grow though

[Millymollymandy]

Sage is a perennial and mine is enormous! It does get leggy and woody eventually the same as rosemary.

I've never lost french tarragon to cold weather before (including weeks below freezing) - perhaps because it wasn't waterlogged?

I can't think of any reason why your herbs aren't doing very well other than the fact that they are in pots, and would probably much prefer being planted into the ground.

[the.fee.fairy]

I don't know then...

I've always cut mine down just before flowering - but then i like to dry lots of it, so i don't know...

[possum]

I don't know what your problem can be, I have grown sage in clay soils, limestone soils, free draining soils and now currently slightly acidic free draining soils, it always flourishes - same as for rosemary (except I one got a spider mite type thing attacking that). I tend to prune it, but only to keep in shape once it gets too big. Perhaps it may be worth looking at the roots to see if you have something eating them? Watering once or twice a week does seem a little more than it should need, unless it was the height of summer, it could be that the roots are rotting. Heck even here with temperatures in summer well into the 30s with no rain, it doesn't get watered that much.

[hedgewizard]

From the photos you're quite close to the wall, so lack of light might well be the problem. They don't need much water (being mediterranean) so I doubt that's it - I'm with Snaps on the pH thing, since most varieties of rosemary can only cope up to about 8.5

[Peggy Sue]

I'm mystified with my sage. I had a broken off twig from a friend about 5 years ago who said stick it in the ground and see what happens. I did and it gre into a triffid with no care or attention whatsoever and took over my very small veggie patch so mucu so that I decided this spring to dig it up, trim it and out it in a dedicated herb border close to the kitchen door.

It just withered away and died! I took 2 cutting before it departed completely, one of which I planted in the herb border, one I stuck under some bushes not knowing where to put it- didn't need 2 plants. The one in the herb border died, the one unnder the bushes getting no light is thriving!

In the herb border everything else has thrived from garlic, beetroot, rosemary (a cutting), corriander, parsley (before the slugs got it), fushia, raspberry (I know not strictly a heb border!)

Meanwhile I can't go wrong with Rosemary, 3 healthy plants I do nothing with to help their cause. This can't be a simple pH issue

Be nice to know....