Is my Rosemary dead?

[Aya]

This is the current state of my Rosemary transplant I purchased from a nursery last year. It dropped all of its needles/leaves a few months ago, which I didn't think much of as I figured it was due to cold weather. However, now I know that Rosemary is an Evergreen plant. They may be hard to see, but there appears to be little white-ish growths on the stems...not sure if that is new buds or something else. We had a couple of days of temperatures in the 20's, and less than 24 hours of a light snow. I live in Washington State, just north of Seattle - zone 8B..any thoughts?

[rainbowgardener]

Rosemary is traditionally listed as cold hardy to zone 8 (except for the new cold hardy varieties that have been specially bred to withstand more cold, like Rosemary Arp). Zone 8 is listed as having average annual extreme minimum temps of 10 -15 deg F. So your rosemary "should" have been able to withstand 20's and light snow. "Should" doesn't necessarily mean it did, though, depending on other conditions like wind chill, if it was hardened to it (sudden drops in temperature are worse), etc.

Scrape a little bit of bark off the trunk and see if it is still green under there. If it is and if the new growths are new buds (I can't quite tell from the picture, but it looks like it), then it probably dropped the leaves because it was stressed and is now recovering.

Good luck!

[Susan W]

Sorry, but looks like a goner to me. I'm good at losing rosemary, especially in pots, and especially small pots. This year we are losing some of the large in ground shrubs. Sigh. As tuff as they look, are somewhat sensitive, and I have noticed once they start to go south, it's over.

This season get a new start that size. Get it in the ground or large (14 -16") container.