VIRGINIA BEACH — During a recent walk, I was surprised to see a splash of pastel in the bleak, brown winter landscape.
A large, woody-stemmed rosemary plant was blooming, and its lacy pastel flowers were so conspicuous in the otherwise barren garden that I just had to walk over and get a closer look.
Rosemary is more likely to bloom in the early spring, but one of the things that I love about this plant is that it has a way of doing the unexpected.
Rosemary is often associated with Princess Anne County, and, of course, with the notorious witch of Pungo, Grace Sherwood, who allegedly flew in her eggshell to England to retrieve plants to transplant into her own garden. They thrived, as that old tale goes, because of her witchcraft.
I won’t delve too deeply into the plausibility of witch conspiracy theories here, but I will say that, if you read what experts say about rosemary, you’d think that growing it in Virginia Beach would require magic.
Rosemary is native to the hilly Mediterranean country, so it’s at home in hot, very dry climates and is said to thrive in poor, rocky soils. In its native climate, it can grow up to six feet tall, but the University of Wisconsin warns it can’t survive below twenty degrees.
Yet rosemary actually thrives in our wet climate and comparatively fertile soils. Perhaps it’s because this herb, like the Witch of Pungo with whom it’s associated, seems to break all of the rules and do whatever it wants to do.
I’ve seen rosemary plants that were decades old and that had survived nights far colder than the 20-degree cutoff. While I’ve never seen any as tall as six feet around here, I have seen many plants that grew as a small shrub, perhaps two or three feet tall and about three feet wide.
Still, rosemary does better in a sheltered location, and it does need good drainage, according to Creeds resident Linda Xenakis, who, as owner of Linda’s Garden, grew herbs commercially for several years before her retirement. She still grows rosemary for her own use, and she has some tips for local residents who want to grow their own.
Rosemary does crave sun and warmth, and well-drained soil is essential Xenakis advises growing it near a concrete sidewalk or your house foundation.
Other local gardeners with whom I’ve spoken agree that rosemary likes inhospitable soil, and one long-time gardener advised mitigating the soil with sand, rocks, or even pieces of broken bricks or concrete blocks.
When grown in the ground, rosemary requires little watering, but if you’re growing it in a container it will need to be watered frequently-sometimes daily-during the summer. Rosemary also doesn’t like to be overfed, and the University of Wisconsin suggests that, if you want blooms, fertilize it very lightly if at all.
Over the centuries, gardeners have grown rosemary for medicinal and cosmetic purposes as well as for its aesthetic value and culinary use. Numerous myths have developed around it.
In ancient Rome, students wore a sprig to help them remember their lessons, and brides wore it in wreaths on their heads as a symbol of marital fidelity, according to the University of Wisconsin.
Of course, in colonial Princess Anne County, rosemary became associated with witchcraft, but I have my own theories about that. It was thought to have cosmetic value as a skin toner, and ladies reportedly boiled it in water and used it as a hair rinse to both condition their hair and to cover grey.
It makes sense that a hard-working 18th-century farm wife, who lacked commercially produced sunscreens, dyes and moisturizers, could benefit from both a home-grown hair rinse and a skin toner.
Since one of the legends about Grace Sherwood is that she was very pretty, I think that it may be likely that she just knew more beauty secrets than some other women.
Today, rosemary is grown mainly for its culinary uses. It’s excellent in stews or soups, and a sprig of it will liven up boiled or roasted vegetables and potatoes. With its feathery leaves and lacy flowers, it’s also a very attractive plant, and as a winter or early spring bloomer, it adds a touch of pastel to an otherwise winter-drab garden.
Rosemary also makes a good conversation piece, and growing it in your garden gives you a chance to educate children and out of town visitors about its witchy associations and why it grows so well in Virginia Beach.
The author is a contributor to The Independent News. Her journalism has also appeared in The Virginian-Pilot.
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