Need some serious help with rosemary and lavender!

[Jennierose]

Hi everyone! This is my first post to this forum and I need a lot of help! I've been wanting an herb garden for sometime now. I've taken a couple of jabs at a few things and they usually die on me. I had a beautiful lavender plant that was my pride and joy (and she knew it!) and she died shortly after I bought her a couple of sisters, which died along with her. I've had dozens of rosemary plants that have died and I just don't get what I'm doing wrong. I live in zone 9 so I don't see a reason for everything dying on me. I figured it was that I was buying my starters from Home Depot. So I decided to try Amazon. I found a gorgeous lavender plant that came super green. I also found a scented geranium and the Rosemary I have I found at Home Depot which was doing great in my house I saw some brown leaves so I pruned them and now she's all droopy and turning even more brown, the same goes for my lavender. I transplanted the lavender into a nice big pot with Fox farm Ocean Forest Organic Potting Soil with a ph between 6.3 - 6.8 and its very loose. I did that earlier today so only time will tell. We had an extremely hard rain the other day too and I got soaked bringing them in because I know all three need water very sparingly. The geranium looks great. She's looking at me like hey mom! I'm doing good!! But I'm just so concerned about my other two because of my past failures that I'm just so depressed! I want them to be okay! I even have a few Quartz stones in the soil for them for an extra boost. Does anyone have any insight? Please help!!

[applestar]

Well, you had the right idea about the rain if this is a deluge, but the large pot of droopy plant -- the potting is looks dried out. That's not good actually, even for lavender. But I would also mix about a cup of sand into that mix -- or approximately 1 part sand to 2 parts good potting mix. This would be for both Rose Mary and Lavender. I think maybe 1 part sand to 3 parts potting mix for the geranium.

Make sure that you are not putting newly acquired or just Uppotted/transplanted plant in full sun area. They need to be acclimated to full sun if they had been in sheltered/shaded area before or were shipped to you, and newly repotted plants need time to recover from transplant shock.

[Jennierose]

The large pot is my poor lavender. The soil is a little dry. I didn't water it after transplant because the little pot she was in was so wet still. What kind of sand is best? Like, beach sand? Sorry if that sounded dumb. I won't be putting my babies out in direct sunlight for a few days. Tomorrow we expect even more downpours and I was reading that after transplant to only allow up to 30 minutes of direct sunlight. So they will stay on my lenai for now some sun but plenty of shade.

[applestar]

Usually builders sand or coarse sand (river sand or crushed granite) to provide best drainage. Beach sand is probably too rounded? BUT if it also contains bits of shells and other large and small bits, it might work. HOWEVER -- It's best to rinse the sand first if suspected of too much salt.

Rosemary is tolerant of some salt but not others.

[imafan26]

The pots are too big. Only get a pot that has a year of growing room or the soil will hold water for too long. I have potted rosemary in Mg potting soil in a clay pot that had about enough growing room for one or two years. Neitther rosemary nor lavender like a lot of water or fertilizer. lavender likes slighlt y alkaline soil better. I use a mix more akin to cactus mix so it drains faster. Lavender does not like to get rained on. If it rains a lot. Bring it where it can get the light in a south or west exposure but where it won't get rained on. For me that is is under the eaves. or at the edge of a covered patio. In pots they can be watered daily if they are not over potted and are well drained. I only use slow release fertilizer nutracote once a year about a teaspoon for a one gallon pot.