bring back rosemary plant after turning brown

Question

I live in Canada, and we received a very cold winter. I planted my 2 year old rosemary plant in a large 50-60 gallon container, and it tripled in size and did very well. It’s about 3 ft tall now. We didn’t have room to bring the plant inside for the winter, so I put it in my carport up against my house in an effort to keep it somewhat warm. Our winter was colder than usual, which got me very worried, so I checked on it. And alas, the whole plant had turned brown, though it doesn’t seem so brittle. I’m wondering if there is any way that I would be able to bring it back? I really am hoping I can fix it, because it was doing so well last year, and I really don’t want to completely restart it again this spring.

Haley Tetroe

Answer 1

If you don’t have room to bring it inside now, the best option is to wait until spring before doing anything. Leave the brown foliage on to protect the roots from any more possible damage. Right now, you won’t be able to tell if any of the stems or the roots are alive, or if they’ve all frozen.

When it’s warm, you could either put the plant outdoors again and wait and see if the stems produce any leaves, or you could cut it back to the base and see if it regrows from the roots. Give it a month or so outdoors, because recovery can take time. If anything grows, you can then prune out the dead parts.