Of crème de menthe, the vagaries of parsley seeding and propagation

Various things I noticed while working in the garden this week.

Same tulip, but with flowers closed

Overwintering Rosemary

For many years, I had at least one rosemary plant which I would take indoors for the winter. On the whole, rosemary bushes do not like spending the winter in a dry house. In such an environment, they hold on to life for a year or two, but soon give up the ghost.
A few years ago, I discovered that the most important way to succeed in overwintering a rosemary plant is to make sure it is stored in a humid-enough environment. Strangely, for a plant that originates in the Mediterranean, it can actually do without light for months, but not without humidity. I discovered that when I was going away for the good part of a winter. In late November, I potted up my rosemary and stored it in a crawlspace where there is no light, quite a bit of humidity and temperatures that do not reach the freezing point. I had little hope that the plant would survive but, to my amazement, it came out in the spring looking much better than it ever had done after a winter indoors. All it needed before another season out in the garden was a bit of trimming.