Anchusa cuttings
The subject this week doesn’t look very good at the moment – but it will! We’ve just been po ing up some huge roots of Anchusa azurea ‘Loddon Royalist’. They’re not at all prepossessing at this stage but by next May their brilliant blue flowers will grace the blue and yellow garden.
This is the perfect time to take root cu ings, and anchusa is a prime candidate with its thick, fleshy roots. We have to lose the end of the roots anyway as they couldn’t be accommodated even in our deepest pots. So they’re trimmed with a sharp pair of snips. As the roots are severed, they’re placed in a big pot full of loose compost, the same way up so that the base of the root is at the bo om of the pot. Later, when the parent plants are po ed, the roots are taken over to the greenhouse where stage two gets underway.
We’ve a few module trays with bigger compartments than those in general use and these are reserved for our anchusa cu ings. The roots are cut into chunks about 5cm (2in) long and each is pushed into a compartment so that its top is flush with the compost. As usual, we sprinkle grit over the surface, water well and place the tray on the sand bench. Although Neil laid soil-warming cables here we seldom use them, although root cu ings would progress faster if we did. When they’ve made proper roots we’ll pot them on.