How to feel like a real gardener

I don’t know about you, but I always thought that people who took cutting are real gardeners.

You don’t need a seed, simply a little piece of a plant and as if by magic, it grows roots and makes a new plant. Give it a couple of years, and you can make more plants!

My dad could seemingly take almost any plant, and in my memory, any time of year (which can’t be true…) and it would root and grow away without any chemicals or greenhouse. Just lots of pots lined up. Little naughty pinchings in the back of a hot pushchair, with no business of surviving, would merrily sprout for him.

The thing is, they want to grow! Trust that process and confidently go about being a real gardener, making your own cuttings! Plants always look better grown in larger groups anyway, or give them away and swop for new ones.

There are different types of cuttings to take depending on the time of year and the plant. Right now, we are at the last moment to take softwood cuttings. These are really easy to do, quick and the most reliable type of cutting to take.

Softwood Cuttings

When:

These can be taken from early spring (when the plant is emerging) through to midsummer (now!)

I could have taken lots of cuttings in the earlier spring but with unpredictable weather, they can easily damp or rot off. I find taking them from May onwards, when the temperatures are reliably higher means they are more likely to root well.

Suitable for:

Hardy & tender perennials - Anthemis, penstemon, pelargonium, verbena. Also deciduous shrubs such as buddleja, fuchsia, hydrangea, pervoskia. And any other plants that have this kind of vigorous soft growth in spring/ early summer. Worth a go!

Time taken:

10 mins per plant, it’s a quick job!

How:

1. Take cuttings from young vigorous stems (if you are renovating an older plant, give it a good hard prune, then take cuttings with the new growth)

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