How To Take Root Cuttings

It’s exciting to produce new plants at a time when many people feel the garden is at its lowest ebb

This is the time of anticipation in the garden, getting excited about what’s in store. But gardening is not a spectator sport, so what can we actually do? This is THE best time to take root cuttings and I can’t resist taking some more at every opportunity I’ve got. Although you can take root cuttings at almost any time of year, the optimum time is November through to March.

Traditionally, on big estates they’d have been collected gradually during the ‘quiet time’ and stored in damp sand in a cold frame until February,when they could be dealt with all together. But experiments have shown that root cuttings work at most times. For the amateur gardener it’s exciting to be able to produce new plants at a time when many people feel the garden is at its lowest ebb.

Most of us don’t often think about roots, for a start they’re hidden under the surface of the soil – out of sight, out of mind. They’re never obvious but without them plants – whether they be trees, shrubs or perennials – could not exist.