If there weren’t enough plants to deal with at the moment, I’ve had a bit of a session taking summer cuttings. I love to propagate my garden and greenhouse plants so that I can take a pot of something special to gardening friends.
It’s also a brilliant way to stock the garden and plant up containers without spending a fortune. Plus at the moment I am trying to plant more bee friendly plants all around the garden to feed the bees.
Summer cuttings can root very quickly in the right conditions and now is a great time to get them started.
It’s not as difficult as you might think and you don’t need any special equipment. I simply root cuttings in pots of fresh, good quality multi -purpose compost in a shady spot in the greenhouse.
This week I’ve been taking stem cuttings from this year’s growth of verbena, fuchsia, penstemon, sage, Diascia, artemisia, lavender, rosemary, sedums, the curry plant and more.
It’s not rocket science; I simply cut off about 2-3inches of fresh stem, remove the bottom leaves and push them into pots of compost.
It’s important to keep the compost moist but not too wet. I usually can’t resist giving the little shoots a tug to see whether they have rooted or not.
That’s actually not such a great idea, because the new roots are very fragile and you may damage them. It’s better to wait for them to start sprouting new growth, that’s a sure sign they are rooting and growing and then you can pot them up into fresh compost and place them in a cool cold frame until they are ready to plant out into the garden.
