re: I would have bought potted plant but it's not available online in India. I bought rosemary seeds after reading about it and thinking the climate is appropriate for them to grow. Growing rosemary from seed is really difficult. Can you get fresh rosemary at the market? It grows from cuttings, and you could root a few sprigs of fresh rosemary from the market. I root them like that often. Keep just a few leaves at the top of the stem (pull off the rest of the leaves and use them in a yummy rosemary flavored dish), and cut diagonally across the node where you removed the lowest leaves. Use a very sharp knife for a clean cut. Put them in a glass or jar of water. Change out the water often (every day or two), to avoid fungus and/or mold. You can add rooting hormone to the water to speed the process. Someone on here recently mentioned willow sticks as a good for promoting rooting, if you want something more natural. Once you see roots forming on the end (and often from the next nodes up the stem), transplant them to containers with good draining potting mix. I use only unglazed clay pots for rosemary. Plastic pots hold the water in and can give you problems with roots rotting. Rosemary isn't difficult to grow, but it is also very easy to kill. It likes good drainage, and water it sparingly. If it's over-watered, it tends to develop rot in the roots. If the ends of the needles are turning brown, or it looks like it's drying out, you have over-watered it. I only water when the potting mix/soil is dry to the first knuckle of my finger (I dig a bit to check how moist things are).

Hi Flora, If it's not outdoors, I just don't have any other options beyond "the temp we keep the house," which is 70F when we're up & about, 60F when we're away at work, and 65F while we're sleeping. On the plus side, this plant did survive indoors last year, and it wasn't nearly as healthy when it started, nor was it in the sunniest window available. Because of this, I'm hopeful. It was somewhat pale and spindly-looking by the end of it, mind you, but by golly, it was alive, and several months of outdoor sunshine did wonders for its health. It's positively thriving now. One of the upstairs rooms might be somewhat cooler, at least some of the time, but there's also the danger of "out of sight, out of mind" and it could get ignored, never get watered, and die that way. I think one of the things that kept it alive last Winter was that it was in the kitchen, poor light and all, but that meant we saw it every day, and if it looked horribly dry, it got watered. This is a difficult problem, to be certain, but last year's success (my first ever) keeps me optimistic.

Labattblueboy. I keep 3 rosemaries in pots and have been quite successful overwintering them indoors for many years. In fact, one is blooming quite nicely right now. I'm in upstate NY. You are right, a rosemary wants a cooler, yet bright, spot in the winter. Give it your brightest window. Are the rads under the windows? If so, you may be able to put something on top of the rads (think thick wooden cutting board) and then place the pots on the boards. But, your bathroom is sounding ideal. I've never had luck with a pebble tray filled with water for extra humidity. Remove the brown needles, not the branches. You may get new needle growth from the branches. Thyme sometimes does get a little shock from the changing seasons. It wants to go dormant for a bit. Don't water as much as you would in the summer. Remove the brown leaves, but not the branches. Give them both a little pep talk, let them know winter isn't forever and could they hold on a little longer. Best of luck.

okievegan, That's what I love about herbs. Plant them once, and you'll have most of them forever. Mine reseed everywhere, but I don't mind it. I leave the volunteers where I want them, and yank out the rest. If I didn't like chamomile so much, it would be irritating because I'd consider it monstrously invasive. Since it pops up everywhere and it pops up early in spring, it attracts beneficial insects early in the year and that is always welcome. Bon, Well, it likely is frustrating that you don't have a big garden in what has been, so far, a fairly average summer, weather-wise, but there's always next year, and hopefully your health will continue to improve so you'll be ready for planting time in 2014. I've grown mint in the ground in my veggie garden and it spread very well, but not to the point of becoming a problem. Then we had a horrific drought year and it dried up and died. I don't have many invasive plant issues, except for herbs and flowers that reseed volunteers every year. The plants that thrive in our dense clay in wet years die in the very dry years, and the ones that thrive in dry clay die in the very wet years. There's very few plants that are equally happy in dense, slow-draining clay in both very dry and very wet years. That likely is a blessing in disguise because it pretty much keeps anything from taking over too much territory. Moni, While you were gone I dug over 300 lbs. of potatoes....before the ground dried out and got hard. All I have still in the ground is the late potato variety. I know the ground is hard and will be hard to dig, but I've got one foot of grass clipping mulch on it, so maybe the ground won't be as hard as I'm expecting. The plants still look good, so I won't have to deal with digging them for a few more weeks. Dawn