What would happen if I cut the top of my rosemary plant?

Question

My plant is 7 months old, I have cut the tips off the smaller branches 1 month and a half ago and nothing happened yet. The main branch is growing good, I never touched it. What would happen if I cut off the top? Will the whole plant stop growing? The tips that I have cut off have no new growth, its like they are suspended.

Answer 1

You should be able to trim it lightly once in a while. Leave some living green on the branches that you trim. Water it well and it is a very hardy thing.Needs some sun. If it is in a pot, it might like a larger pot with more soil around it's roots.

Answer 2

Where I live, it grows very quickly.  I've cut the top and smaller branches and it has ALWAYS grown back.  It's very healthy and has shown no ill effects of being cut.

Answer 3

Any time you cut off the end of a growing branch, you cause the plant to create buds along the branch. Some of these buds will survive and grow into new branches.

As for you question, cutting the top is the same as cutting a branch. A possible reason you are not seeing much new growth is that you did not cut off enough when trimming the side branches. To effectively cause budding you need to cut back to old wood, not new growth. Since your plant is young, cutting the side branches back, only at the tips, will eventually result in budding, but because they are young it may take a while.

So, to force budding along the main stem, cut back to older wood. If the plant is very young, wait until next season.