Wednesday, August 30, 2023

What am I Growing?

We have a rosemary and a bay leaf plant that we keep for adding flavour to our recipes. They live in big terra cotta pots; in the winter the pots are in our front window, but in the spring they go out into the garden. Last June, the rosemary plant perished, so the hunt was on for another. By then the garden centres were all out of herbs, and the supermarkets seemed to have only pots of chives. So the hunt was on.

Instead of going to the seed suppliers I usually use for my annual order, I went to Amazon to save the cost of shipping. I found a source in a faraway land that sold rosemary in packs of 20 seeds and ordered one. Shipping was free, and in a week the seeds arrived in a tiny plastic bag, along with a strip of paper that assured me they were rosemary. I planted four seeds in my Aerogarden and waited. 

According to information I found on the internet, the seeds would take 2-3 weeks to germinate, yet in two days they sprouted. Odd, but good progress. Then they started to grow rapidly, and as they grew they failed to take on the look of a woody rosemary plant. Nor did they have any scent when I broke off a tiny branch. This is what they should have begun to look like:

rosemary

 

But this is what they actually look like:


Not rosemary
 
I looked up "plants that look like rosemary" and that didn't help. The plants are pretty, but what the heck are they? Can anyone help?

Oh, yes, I did eventually find a real rosemary plant at the supermarket, and it is flourishing.

Slava Ukraini
Glory to Ukraine

From Hermione's Heart

9 comments:

Roz said...

Hi Hermione,

I love rosemary. I'm sorry I have no idea. Glad you found rosemary in the end and that it is doing well.

Hugs
Roz

KDPierre said...

Have you tried the Google image search feature on your phone?

What does it smell like?

KDPierre said...

Could it be some type of tarragon? It's hard to tell from the picture.

Anonymous said...

I was going to say the same as KDPierre as to what does it smell like.
Can’t think of any herb that looks like your plant.

Love,
Ronnie
xx

Prefectdt said...

Not 100% sure, but it might be some kind of Anethum (Dill). Although the leaves might be a little wide for that. Perhaps let it grow a bit and find out if it lignifies into a shrub or semi shrub, or stays as it is and is herbaceous.

Prefectdt

Observer said...

Things it is NOT: rosemary, thyme, tarragon, oregano, parsley, cilantro, dill, chives, basil, or Cuban oregano. I grow them in my garden in SE Georgia, USA. Lurker48

Hermione said...

There is no scent at all to the leaves. It looks to be from the carrot family. The plants are getting so big I will transplant them into pots today and let them grow, to see whatthey eventually produce.

I left a one star review on Amazon, and checked the otehr reviews for the seller. A variety of bad reviews for many different reasons, but some were of the "wrong seed" variety.

Nena said...

have you tried the app plantnet? It works pretty well.

Hermione said...

Thanks, Nena. I tried it, and the best result was Marguerite, followed by Cosmos. It really does look like a member of the dill family, but we shall see if/when it blooms.

Hugs,
Hermione