Is Rosemary A Good Tree For Bonsai?

Rosemary is commonly found in the kitchen as a herb, and it is often grown in gardens to be used exactly for this purpose. It is a small little bush with needle like foliage and it smells wonderful.

It is naturally from the Mediterranean area, but it will grow in other climates around the world. It is not the most commonly used species for bonsai, but you can find plenty of examples of people using it.

Is Rosemary A Good Species for Bonsai?

Yes and no. Rosemary has a lot going for it and a lot of what it has to offer is ideal for bonsai, but it comes at a cost. It can be quite a hard tree to work with.

The main problem is that it doesn’t thicken easily or back bud much. If you opt for a bit of material that has a thick trunk, it won’t back bud easily so you end up with a thick trunk and foliage that is miles away and it is very hard to compact it back down.

It is not impossible to get a good rosemary bonsai, it’s just very hard.

Personally I grew my rosemary from a small cutting. My branch structure is pretty good and the overall shape of my tree is nice, but my trunk is about the thickness of a pencil, which is very annoying. You can see how my tree is developing in my Rosemary Bonsai Progression

Is Rosemary Foliage Good For Bonsai?

The foliage looks like little needles and is actually pretty good for bonsai. You can also use the clippings in the kitchen, which is always a nice bonus!

Leaf Size

The needles can be quite small to start with and I have found they do reduce a lot through pruning making it ideal for a bonsai of any size.

Internode Length

The internode length between the needles is really good. At times I have struggled to get a pair of scissors in between them to prune as they are just so small. This length gets smaller the more you prune.

You can really end up with some compact growth on a rosemary very easily which is perfect for a bonsai.

Is Rosemarys Growth Rate Good For Bonsai?

The growth rate will depend on the conditions you have for you tree. I found in my climate they can be very slow growing. However, when I placed them under a grow light I am now pruning them multiple times a year.

When you see a rosemary planted in a garden you will often see it has straight, long leggy growth. This is fine for taking cuttings for the kitchen, but is not great for bonsai and apart of the reason why it can be so challenging.    

Response To Pruning

Being a herb rosemary will respond well to pruning. Where you trim will divide into two new shoots. You can build up some good branch structure and ramification through pruning.

The problem is that this will just keep extending forever and it is very hard to get the tree to back bud. It also doesn’t seem to like when a branch has no foliage on it, so you can’t just prune it hard and hope it reshoots. Branches with no foliage will very quickly die.

If you are starting with a and old bush, you will probably find there is a lot of foliage on the outer edges, but behind is this is a lot of straight and bare branching. If you want to reduce this, you are going to need to cut back hard, but the tree will not respond well to this. If you just cut back to old wood it will probably die.

This means you can only cut back to the most inner needles and start your ramification from there.  This is why it is so hard to get an older tree to become more compact.

Rosemary will back bud, but there does not seem to a way to induce this. It sometimes will send a couple of buds out, but it doesn’t seem to be for any real reason and it is not reliable. This is why you cannot remove foliage from a branch and hope it back buds, most times it doesn’t and the branch dies.

If you go with the other approach and start with a small young tree, like I did, you will find the foliage is close to the trunk and you can easily build ramification and dense branches that are close to the trunk …the problem is that the trunk is thin and will not thicken.

It is very hard to find a nice balance between a good trunk and great foliage close to the trunk.

Rosemary is like the tree that is so close to perfect, but its flaws are just to frustrating and this is why you do not see many rosemary bonsais, well certainly not very many that have been around for a long time. A lot of people try, but give up when they realise the challenge.    

Is Rosemary Styling Ability Good For Bonsai?

Rosemary’s have needles and are every green. I feel that you should really style them to look like a pine or juniper. From a distance you could easily mistake a rosemary for one of these, especially if they are styled in a similar way.   

Wiring

You can do a lot of work with clip and grow when it comes to rosemary’s, but you will probably need to add wire at some point. They can grow quite upright and if you want the tree to look more like a pine or juniper you will need to wire the branches down in a more downward direction.

The problem is that rosemary is quite brittle and you will need to be very careful trying to bend it. You are not going to be able to get any crazy movement in the branches through wiring and should just focus on trying to move them slightly so they are in a better position.

It can also be hard to get the wire on if you have a lot of foliage, this is more down your skill ability, if you are an amateur wirer like me, it can be difficult!

Is Rosemary Fall Colours Good For Bonsai?

Rosemary is evergreen so you are not going to get much change throughout the year and you are not going to get to see the inner structure over winter.

This does mean you can hide a lot of flaws behind the dense foliage. I am sure I have a bit of a T branch going on in my rosemary, but it’s well hidden, which is one of the advantages to using them as bonsai.

Is Rosemary Bark Good For Bonsai?

The bark on rosemary is quite thin and papery. It can actually start to peel off and this looks pretty cool and kind of reminds me of a junipers bark in a way.

Deadwood Opportunities

Depending on the style of your tree some deadwood can work. If you have an old and interesting trunk some deadwood and carving can work really well.

I feel my tree is not ready for either other these, but depending on your material it can really bring a lot of interest to the tree.

Are Rosemarys Roots Good For Bonsai?

The roots are interesting with rosemary. Personally I have taken them back quite hard, quite often and I have found they are now developing very nicely. I have a good trunk flare and the roots themselves are made up of plenty of fine feeder roots and I have never really had any problems with this.

However, I know other people have not had this experience and many have actually found their trees severely suffered after repotting and dying back, if not totally dying.

I think this tends to happen more when pulling a tree out of the ground and trying to reduce it. I grew my tree from a twig so I have always been on top the roots and haven’t give it a chance to know what it is like to grow freely, so maybe this is why my experience is different.

For me, rosemary roots are great for bonsai, but I don’t think everyone will agree with me.

Is Rosemary Easy To Care For As Bonsai

Rosemary is an easy plant to care for, which is why it is such a common garden herb. It prefers nice weather, but it will do just fine even if you can’t provide this.

If you want to know more you can read my Rosemary Bonsai Care Guide.

Conclusion

Rosemary is one of those trees that if you fancy a challenge, it will give you one. They can be okay for bonsai, it just hard work. However, if you can get them to do what you want, you will end up with a very good looking tree.

For most people the effort will not be worth it. There are plenty of other more challenging trees that can get you better results and even more trees that will give you great results, without the challenge.  

They might be best kept in the herb garden, but if you feel tempted to try them as bonsai, just be prepared for a lot of work.