Better Homes and Gardens (Australia)
HOW TO DO BUXUS CUTTINGS
Dominant in the garden is buxus, shaped into either low hedging or topiary. If you want lots of it, you can grow from cuttings to hugely cut costs in establishing your garden.
Here’s how you go about it
• Take hardwood stem cuttings in early spring before new growth starts, or take semi-hardwood stem cuttings in autumn.
• Cut 15-20cm of stem, strip leaves from the bottom 10cm, then put in water until you are ready to plant the cutting.
• Moisten quality potting mix and then put it in your growing tray.
• Dip cuttings into rooting hormone, then stick them in growing tray. Tamp down mix.
• Use plastic-coated wire to make hoops over tray and cover hoops with plastic wrap.
• Put tray in a bright spot out of direct sun.
• Check cuttings each day to keep soil moist and remove any that are struggling.
• It can take up to 8 weeks for cuttings to form roots. Check by gently tugging cuttings to feel for resistance – this is a sign the roots are anchored in the mix.
• Remove plastic wrap and keep plants in the tray for another month before transplanting to individual containers.
• ‘Harden off’ plants by acclimatising them to the location before setting in the garden.
13 By layering your garden – mixing towering, flowering plants like foxgloves with groundhuggers, and fat and slender trees – you create windows of new things to admire at each turn. And the plants’ individuality is appreciated.
14 From little things, big things grow – rows and rows of more than 3000 buxus are ready to be part of the landscape.
15 Don’t you just love the variegated texture of the brickwork and the wood stack!
16 It was in the Georgian era that vegetables began to have ornamental appeal. Believe it or not, beneath those pretty white flower balls are onions!
17 The silver shimmers of a giant oyster plant will do the trick!