Summertime cuttings

A simple, seasonal way of making new plants, says Ruth

- Ruth Hayes

TAKING cuttings is always a satisfying thing to do because it promises new plants, identical to their parent, and all for free. Of course you can collect seeds too – and I do, and highly recommend that you do too – but cuttings will give you exact replicas of the parent plants. Seeds, on the other hand, can revert and give you something unexpected.

Last autumn we collected and sowed the seeds from some graceful, single-petalled, pinky-mauve opium poppies, which this summer turned into overly-flamboyant bright pink pompom eyecatchers. We won’t be harvesting these!

In summer you can take softwood cuttings using this year’s fresh growth from perennials such as penstemon, pelargonium, aubrietia and verbena.

These cuttings are relatively quick to root and should be taken early in the day when the plants are turgid, or full of moisture taken up overnight.