So I had to pull up some huge rosemary plants in the front yard to have some plumbing work done. I noticed that the rosemary I’ve bought to replace it has completely different leaves. The old plant was more like an evergreen with oily needle-like leaves. The new plant has soft flat leaves but still smells like rosemary.
Are these two plants actually related? Are they both edible? The “evergreen” One was fairly hearty and grew quickly. Will the other variety act the same?
In addition to the fact that there are different varieties as people have noted, plants change as they age. A nice, new seedling will sometimes be softer, and gradually get more woody as time goes on.
I’ve seen this with rosemary and with thyme.