Oregano dying after being cut?

[rosiegirl]

Hi,

I have a small oregano plant that I grow in a pot with my garden. I grew oregano for a few years and it did great. I planted a new plant this year (in the same location, new soil) and it did great, too. When the branches got long, I cut them and brought them in to dry. In the past, I would get new branches but this plant just seems dead now. I only got about 5 stems from the entire plant...normally I'd be able to harvest oregano all summer (I'm just east of NYC)

Thoughts?

[rainbowgardener]

It does look dead and I don't know exactly what happened to it. But it looks like you cut the stems all the way at the bottom, perhaps all at once? You kill the plant that way, because it doesn't have enough leaves left to support it. You never want to take more than about one third of the plant at a time and then don't take any more until it has grown back at least to where it was, preferably a bit more, so it can be growing.

You said in the past you picked oregano through the summer. Oregano is perennial. Where I am in zone 6 it overwinters in the ground (even in this past harsh winter, when a lot of other stuff got winter killed). Where you are, you might have to bring it in for the winter.

[rosiegirl]

thanks!

I didn't cut all the way down, but I did cut all the stems at once. oops! the last oregano plant I had lasted 4 winters, which was great. and it was so big that I never cut all of the stems. didn't think about the plant needing the leaves.

do I just need to plant another one?

[rainbowgardener]

do I just need to plant another one? Yup


The leaves are where the plant gets energy, can't survive without them. Like I said, don't take more than one third of them at once.

[rosiegirl]

thanks so much!