I have seen rosemary to grow like weed or shrub in arid places in S.CAL(San Diego).

What does it tell you?: =It like arid condition, poor soil, sun, not too much water. More than anything else, If grown somewhere that rains a lot, the soil has to be well drained. Like here at the PNW, with a lot of rain, it is grown as a shrub.

Rosemary is a woody, slow growing perennial. You cannot expect it to grow fast like BASIL, CILANTRO...But it can get quite large over years(Shrub)

Is it absolutely vital that the rosemary be in a pot? In your climate it would be trouble free in the ground and would need no care at all to speak of.

Rosemary is a shrub, so it naturally will grow much slower than something like basil. Even a mature healthy bush in the ground will only put on 6 or so inches a year. If the pot is full of roots then maybe it is too small. How big a container are you using? And is it possible that the roots are baking in your container? Although it comes from the Mediterranean it doesn't want to be cooked.

This post was edited by florauk on Mon, Jul 15, 13 at 6:36

Unfortunately I don't have any space available in the ground, so it has to be in a pot.

Knowing that the roots grow so fast, I planted the last one in really big pot (18" x 18" approx.), compared to the size of the plant (6" x 6" approx.). Same thing happened after 6 months, the plant seemed to be stopped in time, never grew "at all" and when I removed it from the pot, the roots had taken over. It came out in one piece, perfectly shaped as the pot. My neighbors grow rosemary in the ground very successfully, so I know my weather is appropriate. I have never thought about "baking the roots" like you mentioned florauk. Although the roots seem almost too healthy, could that be the reason the plant doesn't grow? What can I do to stop that from happening?