I have never grown that variety of wormwood, but with the Artemisia absinthum you can cut that back and it just keeps growing. I think it might be rather drought tolerant, so you can check the dampness of the soil before watering...
cut, dried and sifted means that it's been harvested, dried then had the sticks and stones and large pieces sifted out.... :o)
How NEAR to SF do you live? I live in Sacramento....

I live right near SF airport. I thought one would need to let it bloom before cutting off the branches? So the leaves are ready to use as soon as they are grown?

probably the strength for medicinal properties would be best just around flowering... I warn you, if it is like A.absinthum, it reseeds itself like mad.... so you might want to chop it back like mad. I used it for making a fake absinthe, and didn't notice a difference in 'strength'. I did chop the thing back a lot, often though, as A. absinthum can get large.
Yours should be flowering soon... are you giving it full sun?

I'll be using it to do the coloring phase of absinthe. Yes it has full sun for almost the entire day. Do I want to harvest it when it's flowering? And how do I havest? Do I just cut the branches down to the base, hang to dry and then remove the leaves from the branch?

That's how I did it. oh and don't put in lemon balm, I've seen a lot of recipes using this, DON'T USE IT, unless you want you and your friends to just go to sleep... take this from experience, it's freaky, people just going to sleep.
I harvested before flowering... well actually, I harvested constantly. I didn't notice any difference.

Guess it would be a great cure for insomnia, as long as you eventually wake up. I thought it was poisonous though.

Regular Wormwood, A. Absinthium can destroy your neverous system from prolonged use of wormwood, but for absinthe you are using the essence, and this only comes through in very minute amounts from distillation. Everything you've ever heard, good or bad, about absinthe is wrong! Basically everything the commoner knows about absinthe was basically a smear campaign from the Wine industry of France a hundred or so years ago.

I could believe that.

As I said before I'm not much of a gardener so when I think of using leavees for herbs I think in terms of fruit. When it's ripe you pick it. For Roman Wormwood leaves, once they are grown they're good to use?

Would you happen to be able to spare a cutting of your plant? I live in the City and I produce my own absinthe as well. I have been looking for dried/fresh A. Pontica for a few months now to round out my coloring.

Cut and sifted herbs are just that: the herbs are chopped and the stems and leaves are sifted to drop out powdery remains to give a weight to just the cut product. Have you been able to find A. Pontica variety as dried? I often will receive A. Absinthim as this is the one variety that herb retailers will distribute.

so ya'll seem to know about wormwood, how do i take a cutting off an established plant?
i know where several are located that have gone wild basically on an abandoned piece of property.
any & all comments, suggestions excepted with great thanks.