I've never been able to find enough plants to do any kind of experimenting. For some reason, there's only ever 1 or 2, if any. If they're at a BBS, they're WAY overpriced with silly signage that implies your mosquito problems will be over if you buy one, and I haven't seen them in years that way. They probably got a lot of complaints from itchy people. If they'd just sell 'scented Pelargoniums' not calling them Geraniums (so people don't complain about the sparse/missing flowers,) that would be honest and I believe sell well. The 'mosquito-repellent' and 'Geranium' labels were sadly misleading I thought.

This type of countertop can be treated as a living and growing surface. Over time, various things may hit it, some of which will remain. Do not treat them as stains to remove, but as a development of the surface. Granite is not supposed to be supper stain resistant; let it age with grace rather than trying to keep it the same way it was when installed. You will find this advice particularly helpful when and if you get some chips in the surface. These things were meant to be used, not coddled and worried about. Renais

I bought my lemongrass at an Asian market out of the produce section. I stripped off any dead looking leaves. I did NOT cut off the top but should have because new stems will grow up between the old leaves. That works better if you cut off the top part so they have an easier time emerging. My lemongrass was totally rootless and had been in cold storage when I bought it. After a couple of weeks in a glass of water in the window, I saw no progress, root-wise. I meant to throw it out but didn't get around to it for another couple of weeks. I HAD refilled the glass with water though, so there was still some water in the glass when I got around to finally getting rid of it, only to discover that it had rooted after all. It had a bunch of roots at that point, about an inch to 2" long. I planted it and it is doing fine. I don't know if there are enough roots on the plants you have to root well going straight into a pot. My thinking is that this is a grass, grasses are tough, and giving it a shot to just directly plant those is probably not unwarranted. You might take a couple of stems that have the fewest roots and stick them in a glass of water to hedge your bets. I don't know if you SHOULD plant them that deep, but I know I did NOT plant mine that deep. I planted about half or less that deep. You should probably cut off all the upper portion down to about 4" to 6". Ultimately, new shoots will seek their own depth as the plant spreads. I would pull off the black dead leaves though.

Looks like Calamintha nepeta to me, although I've always thought of that as more minty than citronella.