Here are various attempts at growing rosemary from cuttings. On the left are two rather sorry specimens. These I cut and put in water on 26 Nov (Full Moon phase – good for taking cuttings) and planted out on 17 Feb (Last quarter – no planting) after they had a good set of roots. Besides whatever else they didn’t like, the poor little guys were totally overrun by weeds. I didn’t want to get in and weed them because of the wasp nest in the parent rosemary bush that formed just above them (see photo below). I did sometimes sprinkle a bit of water over the area (avoiding disturbing the wasp nest) but otherwise they got zero TLC from me, even when it was 40 outside.
On the right, the right-most pot is where I stuck some cuttings on 24 Dec (day of full moon – do nothing in the garden) and stuck the whole thing in the sun. When the heat wave got really bad, I did move them to the shade. The pot got regular watering and most of the stalks looked like they’d die, but they’re really coming good.
On the right, the left pot is where I stuck some cuttings on 24 Jan (Full Moon phase, good day according to the Lunar Calendar) and stuck them in the shade which was supposed to be better than the sun. Since it was starting to get hot that made double sense.
Okay, the ones that survived from the 24 Jan cuttings (good lunar phase) are tallish and look very healthy, but more than half of them died. Just about everything from the 24 Dec cuttings (bad lunar phase) survived and are taller and bushier (probably exactly an amount you’d expect for them being one month older) than their siblings. I’m not even going to compare those from 26 Nov, too much went wrong there.
In summary, I have no confidence that adherence to the lunar calendar helps. Not sure it hurts either. I’m still vacillating.
As for those pesky (and painful) wasps, they’re still around but since it’s gotten colder they seem to cling to their nest all day. I think this means they are less likely to attack. They certainly didn’t hurt me when I pulled the weeds and discovered I do in fact still have 2 tiny rosemary plants.
Laura Rittenhouse's Gardening Journal 