Start thinking about cuttings

Propagation is so easy and satisfying, says Ruth

- Ruth Hayes

IT’S time to take advantage of the healthy new growth appearing in the garden and start to think about taking cuttings.

New gardeners may find the prospect a bit daunting, but propagating from cuttings is actually relatively easy and gives you new plants identical to their parent – unlike growing from seed, which can be more hit-and-miss.

Any softwood or semi-ripe cuttings taken last autumn and overwintered in a snug frost-free place should also be ready to move on into containers of gritty multi-purpose compost, so they can grow on and be hardened off ready to plant out in a few weeks’ time.

I took some pelargonium cuttings last autumn, so this week I have been potting them up individually and will keep them in the greenhouse until they are ready to go outside.

I also spotted a few suckers from our raspberry canes that were creeping through the lawn close to where the parent plants are growing. As we have lost a few canes over the years, I decided to have a go at using these as cuttings to replace the ones that died.

I cut them away from the parent roots just below the soil – a technique called ‘basal’ cuttings, or base cuttings that can also be used to propagate perennials such as lupins, phlox and delphiniums.

Instead of taking material from the tops of plants as with most cuttings, you remove new shoots from the base. Other than that, the process is just the same – dip the cut ends in rooting powder or gel, and insert the cuttings into pots of dampened compost mixed with grit or perlite to aid watering and root ventilation.