Memory evergreen

For all its deep roots in history, song and legend, rosemary has nothing to do with roses or Mary, though there is a folk tale that recounts how the Christ mother’s blue cape was draped over a bush and turned its white flowers to blue: the so-called rose of Mary.

Rosemary was certainly well known in biblical times and long before, in fact — the ancient Egyptians used it in burial rituals — but the real origin of its name is rather more prosaic. The Romans called the herb ros marinus or “dew of the sea”, which hints at its Mediterranean origins.

No doubt the Romans took rosemary to Britain when they invaded in the first century