Aren’t they beautiful flowers? Tasty, too. Looks like your rosemary fared better than ours. We have a bed of 80 or so mature plants and at least 2/3 of them appear dead…it’s quite a loss. We’ll replant some, but it will take time to get them to that size again.
Deirdre: that rosemary spent the winter in the greenhouse (that still counts as “the garden”, doesn’t it?), with probably a 1/2 dozen cousins, all different cultivars. The ones outside are either dead, or severely damaged – unfortunately. I love the nuances of tastes provided by different cultivars and often use rosemary for a little kick (or a big kick). As a matter of fact I recently prepared a lemon rosemary sorbet (which was decorated with rosemary flowers. They are quite spicy aren’t they?) and the week before I had a rack of lamb with rosemary, and again used the blue flowers as an edible garnish. In my parents’ garden the rosemary is so big it’s practically a hedge and they take huge branches from it and throw it on the fire to perfume grilled meat and fish… and keep mosquitoes away.
I plan to ask our chefs if they want any of the dead wood for smoking meats- at least then I’ll feel as though they did not die in vain. Lemon rosemary sorbet sounds amazing!
Sylvie,
Aren’t they beautiful flowers? Tasty, too. Looks like your rosemary fared better than ours. We have a bed of 80 or so mature plants and at least 2/3 of them appear dead…it’s quite a loss. We’ll replant some, but it will take time to get them to that size again.
Deirdre: that rosemary spent the winter in the greenhouse (that still counts as “the garden”, doesn’t it?), with probably a 1/2 dozen cousins, all different cultivars. The ones outside are either dead, or severely damaged – unfortunately. I love the nuances of tastes provided by different cultivars and often use rosemary for a little kick (or a big kick). As a matter of fact I recently prepared a lemon rosemary sorbet (which was decorated with rosemary flowers. They are quite spicy aren’t they?) and the week before I had a rack of lamb with rosemary, and again used the blue flowers as an edible garnish. In my parents’ garden the rosemary is so big it’s practically a hedge and they take huge branches from it and throw it on the fire to perfume grilled meat and fish… and keep mosquitoes away.
I plan to ask our chefs if they want any of the dead wood for smoking meats- at least then I’ll feel as though they did not die in vain. Lemon rosemary sorbet sounds amazing!