Anne Swithinbank’s Masterclass

QFollowing the seasonal advice in magazines and online to ‘take semi-hardwood cuttings of shrubs in July and August’, I am not having much luck as they usually wither and die. Where am I going wrong?

AThe time is right to take semihardwood cuttings, and I’m sure instructions have been carefully followed, but as the old saying goes, ‘There is many a slip between cup and lip’. The process of collecting stem material, choosing containers and compost, and looking after the cuttings while they root requires attention to detail for a good success rate. I have often killed cuttings simply by moving them 5in (13cm) so they suddenly received too much direct sun or accidental overwatering. Some shrubs (ceanothus, for instance) are notoriously tricky from cuttings.

A semi-hardwood or semi-ripe cutting is so-called because the stems have grown this year and their bases are beginning to harden up. They are a popular method for propagating both deciduous and evergreen shrubs, perhaps to replace taller, older plants with more compact replicas or to root some for friends. You can buy one plant of a shrub such as escallonia or euonymus and from it, root enough to make a hedge. Cuttings are a means of vegetative propagation, so the results will be identical clones of their parents.

The first step is to take a good look at your target plant, to seek out strong, healthy material. The tops of long stems with firm bases work well and should their tips be very soft and droop easily, just nip them out. I usually search for side-shoots 3-5in (8-13cm) long that are easily ‘peeled’ away from an older stem. They come away with a heel of older wood attached and once this is trimmed and the cutting inserted into moist gritty compost, the damaged area calluses over and this scarred area is a good place for roots to develop.

Professional propagators prune their stock plants in special ways to make them generate a mass of potential cuttings. Fresh, well-stored hormonerooting compound helps cuttings root, but I find most cope well without it.

Buy one shrub of, say, escallonia (this is ‘Donard Beauty’) and you can take enough cuttings for a hedge You can use hormone-rooting powder to help cuttings root The shrubby twinberry (Lonicera involucrata) our garden started out as a cutting from a friend’s plant. Both shrubby and climbing honeysuckles root easily from cuttings and are a good choice for beginners in