Scottish growing tool

Rosemary Variety Selector: Which One For Your Garden

Every recommendation below traces back to our full Rosemary varieties comparison — this page is the fast route to one answer for your specific situation, no clicking through required.

If: A hedge or a steady kitchen supply or A container on a patio or balcony → Not sure, just give me the safest all-round choice or Trailing over a wall or raised bed edge → Not sure, just give me the safest all-round choice or Something beyond flavour, like scent or flower colour → Not sure, just give me the safest all-round choice or Not sure, just give me the safest all-round choice

Miss Jessopp's UprightAGM

The best all-rounder for most Scottish gardens: RHS Award of Garden Merit, hardy to H4, upright growth that keeps its foliage clear of wet ground. Largest of the six at up to 2.5m, columnar, with the most usable leaf per plant, suited to hedging or a stand-alone specimen.

If: A container on a patio or balcony → Upright or Something beyond flavour, like scent or flower colour → Pink flowers

RoseaAGM

Compact (0.5-1m), AGM and H4 hardy, upright habit. Its pale pink flowers are the outlier among these six varieties, the rest are the usual rosemary blue.

If: A container on a patio or balcony → Trailing, arching or Trailing over a wall or raised bed edge → No, it would be in ordinary open ground

FoxtailAGM

Compact (0.5-1m), AGM and H4 hardy, semi-prostrate and arching over as it matures rather than lying flat from the start. A reasonable compromise for a container or wall edge where a fully upright habit isn't wanted, without dropping into Capri's lower hardiness band.

If: Trailing over a wall or raised bed edge → Yes, drainage and shelter are sorted

Capri (Prostrate Group)

Only worth choosing on genuinely free-draining, sheltered ground: its H3 rating is a step down in hardiness from the upright and semi-trailing AGM varieties, and its fully prostrate, ground-hugging habit puts more of the plant in contact with the wet winter soil that actually kills rosemary here. Give it a south-facing raised bed or a large gritty container rather than open clay ground.

If: Something beyond flavour, like scent or flower colour → Gingery scent

Green Ginger

Bushy, upright habit with a gingery scent, no AGM but still rated H4, so it doesn't trade away hardiness for the scent.

Answer these as a quick wizard instead →

Rosemary growing guide →Full Rosemary varieties comparison →