Sage and most rosemary might root, but doesn't do well over winters. Good luck! Thyme, once started from seeds will survive winters quite well and you can harvest any time. Keep in mind that many store herbs are sometimes forced grown and my not take root very well. Rooting hormones may be needed.

Yea I just bought a pack of basil a few weeks ago and transplanted it to a pot, and alot of them have died in the process, and they are still continuing to look a little droopy. We'll just have to wait and see

I didn't try basil...I have a bunch of basil seeds of different flavors to use...cinnamon, lemon, thai...

Good luck!

I did use hormone to try. The mint already had what looked like tiny air roots in the cleft of one set of leaves....

Well I don't feel like I wasted anything, 'cause I have all the immature pieces, and the leaves I pulled off the more mature pieces to make bare stems for rooting.

I have had luck with thyme rooting but are still confused with rosemary. One place states to use old wood cuttings another states to use green wood. Good luck on rooting your new friends.

I've started mint from a cutting and that should fare well for you.

You may wish to take a browse through old posts since rooting herb slips have been covered quite a number of times and you may find some other helpful information. Go to the top page for the herbs forum and scroll to the bottom. The search bar for the forum is there.

FataMorgana

I think mints are probably the easiest things to root from cuttings. They grow fast and are generally pretty hardy as long as the soil doesn't dry out. I've never tried rooting anything from the grocery store like that but a friend gave me some mint sprigs last year and they grew like wildfire.

I got a question about cuttings thought, particularly basil. What type of lighting and environment should you leave it in to stimulate root growth? I've been leaving my cuttings in a south facing window sill with really bright sun for about two weeks, but hardly any root growth is occurring

takadi,
Your cuttings shouldn't be getting lots of direct sunlight. It is important to limit heat and transpiration and thus stress on the cutting until roots have begun to develop and the plant can take up its own water. Low light and high humidity are ideal for the first couple weeks.

ahh, so much makes sense now. Thanks

Rosemary should start easily from cuttings. I regularly cut a tip off a plant, stick it in the dirt, and watch it grow with little to no care. I would also suspect mint and thyme would take easily.

I have done this with sage, oregano, thyme, and rosemary from the grocery store. Most work pretty well, even tho they live in my fridge for a few days while I use them up in cooking.

Odd thing is, if I stick them in a supermarket herb pot, they ALWAYS take. In fact, some spat out tomato seeds are doing better in the basil pot (an experiment) that the expensive F1 seeds I bought. Any idea what they put in those pots?

Organic fertilizers and micro nutrients. PHC is one great powdered fertilizer for use with seedlings. The soil in the pots is usually a sterile seed starting medium, and is not really dirt. Many make the mistake of trying to start seeds in pots using plain garden soil. Most outdoor gardens do have diseases and bugs (like fungus gnats/maggots) that will thrive even better indoors, something you dont want in inside pots.

Mint is -very- easy to root; I have several cuttings doing well from a grocery store plastic box (read: four freaking bushes of it). I've also managed sage... however, after doing that and then starting from seed, the difference is night and day.

Either I managed to somehow stunt my sage transplants or they're just not that great, but the sage I grew from seed (Burpee, nothing special) is far, far hardier and more potent, and grows incredibly quickly.

If you're having trouble starting seeds, I'd suggest reading up from many sources; I combined the most popularly touted methods and ended up pretty much doing everything very simply, and haven't had trouble getting anything except tomatoes to grow (but that was a very poorly-done experiment, and I'll be getting it right next time).

I'm hoping to root leftover sage and thyme from grocery store purchases. For clarification, do you recommend rooting sage and thyme first in water before transplanting into potting soil? Or skip the water and just stick both the sage and thyme in potting soil (or potting soil with mostly perlite)?

I've rooted mint in water and then it planted into potting soil successfully. But whenever I've tried with basil first in water, it dies as soon as it's transplanted into potting soil. From finally doing some online reading it seems basil shouldn't be rooted first in water as it produces weak roots, but should be in soil medium from the get-go. Do sage and thyme fall into the mint category of rooting or basil category?

Okay, thyme is woody, but sage isn't. Do you recommend just putting the cuttings for both the sage and thyme in soil only?

fatamorgana - You're right about sage. I didn't realize it was woody. I guess I should skip the water and stick them directly into potting soil.

Sage, thyme and rosemary are all woody. The stuff you get at the store is the tender tips do it might not look woody. But all three are.