Is there something in your garden that you’d love to have more of or to share with family and friends? Follow our simple guide to taking cuttings and you’ll have all the plants you want.
In May the garden reaches peak loveliness and its now, when stems and stalks are filled with early vigour, is the best time to take cuttings.
There’s no mystique about the process. Taking cuttings is easy and involves no specialist knowledge or equipment and once you’ve mastered the technique then, with a bit of patience, you can greatly increase the stock of plants that you grow.
Cuttings can be taken at any time during the growing season, but softwood cuttings, taken in late spring when new growth is still pliable and has not yet turned woody, root most readily.
So take a look around your garden and decide what you’d like to have more of and then start propagating all of your favourite plants.
WHAT WORKS:
Cuttings can be taken from a wide range of shrubs, herbs and perennials, both hard and tender, including salvia, pelargonium, hydrangea, clematis and weigela.
WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
Secateurs, sharp knife, free-draining compost mixed with Perlite, small pots, clear plastic bags, elastic bands.
HOW TO TAKE CUTTINGS:
Try to take cuttings early in the morning, when stems are still full of moisture. Choose non-flowering stems and snip them off above a leaf node at about 10cm from the tip. Pop into a plastic bag while you collect more material.
PREPARING CUTTINGS:
Trim each cutting just below a leaf node and remove the lower leaves. Pinch out the growing tip. Make a hole against the rim of a pot filled with compost, insert the cutting until the leaves are just above the surface. Firm in gently and then add more cuttings around the rim. Water, cover with a plastic bag held in place with an elastic band, then place out a warm, bright windowsill, protected from direct sunshine.
GROWING ON:
Remove the plastic bag several times a week to allow air to circulate. Keep the cuttings moist and, once roots appear through the holes in the bottom of the pot, tip the cuttings out and repot into fresh compost, three to a pot. Acclimatise gradually before moving outdoors and pot-on several times as they grow until they are ready to go into the garden.
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