How to grow new plants from cuttings — a beginner’s guide to propagation for winter 2022

Suitable for

Shrubs and some trees, particularly roses, blackcurrants and willows.

When really should you get started?

Wintertime. Cut a young, straight stem from shrubs and some trees in winter season and you are holding a new plant. Snip off the idea just above a bud, making use of a sloping reduce to remind you which conclude is up, then make another horizontal reduce 15-30cm (6in-12in) down, just beneath a bud, to generate your cutting.

Top idea

Use a spade to make a slender 5cm-broad (2in-broad) slit trench and dribble a layer of sand alongside the bottom. Then sink in the cuttings and firm again the soil, leaving just the best 3rd seen. You can also root hardwood cuttings into tall pots. Leave to grow all period, then move your new crops in autumn.

Basal cuttings

Suitable for

Hefty, thick-stemmed perennials like dahlias, world artichokes, delphiniums, phlox and lupins.

When must you start out?

Spring – so put this in the lender for future year.

Peer at the bottoms of your most rumbustious border plants and you’ll usually see sturdy shoots leaping up straight from the floor. These are your cheat shoots, as they ordinarily come absent with embryonic roots ready-connected.

Reduce shoots at 10cm (4in) lengthy, slicing them absent from the plant with a sharp knife as shut to the foundation as possible. Pull off the least expensive leaves to leave a thoroughly clean stem, then pot up. You are going to have new plants developing within just a thirty day period.

Top rated tip

When having cuttings from vegetation with big leaves, minimize just about every leaf in 50 % immediately after potting up. It would seem drastic, but it massively cuts down h2o loss, so the slicing can focus on forming roots in its place.

Leaf cuttings

Suitable for

Houseplants, primarily African violets, peperomia, streptocarpus and begonias

When must you get started?

Spring until autumn.

For bona fide, jaw-dropping plant magic, attempt leaf cuttings. A person leaf yields quite a few crops, it’s lifeless uncomplicated, and your youngsters/spouse/parents (delete as acceptable) will consider you are a genius.

Fill seed trays with gritty compost. For African violets and peperomias, make a hole, select off a leaf with stalk connected and simply pop it in, firming the compost close to the stalk.

Slice streptocarpus leaves into two strips, taking away the midrib and slash begonia leaves into 2cm squares, every with a vein. Stand lower-edge down and bury this lower edge in compost. Maintain damp and warm, and tiny plantlets need to surface: pot up independently at the time substantial plenty of to handle.

Leading suggestion

Cuttings generally root in basic drinking water, specifically rapid-rooting willows and dogwoods, and houseplants including begonias and rubber plants. Take cuttings as common, then drop into a glass of thoroughly clean water on a dazzling windowsill. Modify the water 2 times weekly, then at the time roots seem, pot up and expand on.

Root cuttings

Excellent for

Oriental poppies, mint, verbascum, Japanese anemone

When need to you commence?

Winter. You’ve probably already encountered the zombie-like potential of bindweed and couch grass to regenerate from scraps of root. But happily other, prettier and superior behaved crops do this too, like ravishing oriental poppies (Papaver orientale) and mint.

Major idea

Dig up the plant and tease out a pencil-thick white root. Slice it away as near to the plant as feasible, and minimize into 5-10cm (2in-4in) lengths. Lay these flat on a seed tray of compost, then go over frivolously with a lot more compost. Major off with grit, drinking water and pop into a chilly body to root by upcoming spring.

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