Rosemary, Rosemary wherefore art thou

New hopeful rosemary plant awaits it fate in the garden.

For the 16 years Rob and I have been married, I have grown herbs in our home. Basil, parsley, oregano in little terra cotta pots sat pretty on the windowsill of our first apartment. In our city home I grew the same herbs (adding thyme and cilantro) in buckets on the back porch. Last year our garden produced enough basil(in the varieties of genovese,thai,lemon and lime) thyme, oregano, parsley,  cilantro, even chamomile; to be dried or frozen for use the entire year. So what gives? Where is the rosemary?

I remember the first time this little evergreen shrub found it's way into my life. Rob brought one home as a gift, it was our first year together and he knew how much I loved potted plants over cut flowers. "Wow, it looks like a little Christmas tree." I remember saying. "Is that really the stuff you put on chicken?" It just needed sun and water like the other herbs, right? Wrong, six months later my "little Christmas tree" looked like it had been caught in a forest fire. 

Poor little rosemary plant from last year R.I.P.

This strange ritual continued for many years. Rob would buy me a rosemary plant and I would kill it. He even tried spiral shaped, topiary, big sized, small sized, creeping or skewer type. Kill, kill, kill. . . .he gave up. "You can just buy it already in a little jar." he said. I thought I gave up too and ordered a full pound from a food co-op. I added it to many of my favorite dishes. But everytime planting time would come around I could not resist it, the smell, the texture. It would just find it's way back to my home. 

Oh, I know my problem was not enough research. So I hit the books. This well-know culinary herb is an old-fashioned remedy for colds, colic and nervous conditions. It is great as an astringent, hair tonic, mouth wash and sore throat gargle. Okay that just made me want to use it more . . .how do I not kill it? This old gardening book I found said it was a half-hardy perennial for New England. So that year I planted it directly in the garden. It did quite well and I even covered it for the winter. The following spring it was dead.  

Last year I potted it and left it in the garden. It did well all summer, fall. I brought it in in the winter and it actually thrived I brought back to the garden but by mid-spring it was yikes, dead once again.

I returned to the books. "There's Rosemary, that's for remembrance: Pray you, love, remember." William Shakespeare (Hamlet). So even Shakespeare had a thing for rosemary. I found out that students in ancient Greece wore wreaths of rosemary leaves, to aid the memory. And that, in some places they called it "elf-leaves" because even the elves had an affinity for it. My thoughts changed when I came across this old proverb: "Where Rosemary flourishes, the lady rules."

Newly planted little discount rosemary plants.

Was that it? Was Rob the true culprit? Has he been secretly sabotaging the rosemary all these years? Or are You Lord my God trying to teach me something? 

I truly surrendered to Rob, God, and the rosemary, until I came upon these two little rosemary plants. They were at a discount, surely I could try one more time.

Dear God, Rob can be the head of the household, just please, please let the rosemary live.