Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
MONTY DON
Why buy new plants when you can create them from cuttings, says Monty Don – and now’s the best time to get started
Why buy plants when you can create your own from cuttings, says our gardening expert
Early autumn is an ideal time for taking semi-ripe cuttings. These are cuttings a couple of inches long taken from woody herbs like rosemary, lavender or thyme and soft fruit such as gooseberries and redcurrants as well as any flowering shrub such as roses.
Whereas softwood cuttings are taken entirely from new growth (and therefore usually taken earlier in the year), semi-ripe cuttings are taken from the current season’s wood that has started to harden off a little. The tip is soft and bendy but the base of the cutting will have wood that has started to become more rigid. This means that it will be slower to make new roots than a soft cutting but it will also be slower to die back. The cuttings are effectively dying from the second you cut them until they develop new roots, so the quicker you can aid that process, the more likely you are to have success. Semi-ripe cuttings last longer, giving you more flexibility until they root and so there is a much reduced sense of urgency about the whole proceedings.
If you have not taken cuttings before, do not be daunted. They are easy, mostly successful and the gateway to producing scores of new plants for free. They also enable you to be very specific about what you want. A plant grown from a cutting will always be exactly the same as its parent plant whereas one grown from seed will always be different – albeit perhaps not very much and it might even be an improvement. But cuttings are essentially clones so if you have a favourite rose, a particularly delicious gooseberry or a really good penstemon shrub, then all these qualities will remain with the new plants grown from cuttings.
When you set out to take cuttings, take with you a polythene bag and a sharp knife and secateurs. The bag is for placing the cut material into immediately to reduce moisture loss and the sharper your tools, the more likely the cuttings are to root. In principle, it is best to take them in the morning while the plant is full of moisture but in practice it is something best done as and when you are minded to do it. No time like the present!
Always choose healthy, strong, straight growth for cutting material. It should be free from any flowers or flower buds. Plants such as rosemary will root successfully from side shoots that have been peeled from the main stem, but where there is plenty of material I prefer to take shoots with the main growing tip intact. Once you have taken material from the plant and placed it in the bag go and pot it up immediately. Strip off all lower leaves and side shoots so that only 2.5cm (1in) or less of foliage remains. Leaving too much foliage increases the loss of moisture from transpiration. Too little runs the risk of any new roots being insufficiently fed via photosynthesis. Cut the bare stem to size with a sharp knife or secateurs and plant it in a container of very gritty or sandy compost.
It is best to place the cuttings around the edge of a container and you can always get at least four and often more in a 10cm (4in) pot. Put this somewhere warm and bright but not on a south-facing windowsill as it may scorch. Water it well and then keep it just moist, although a daily spray with a mister will help stop the leaves drying out before new roots have time to form. You will know that the roots have formed when you see fresh new growth. At that point the cuttings can be removed from the pot and potted on individually before planting out next spring.