Monty demystifies the process of taking cuttings
If you think that propagating your own plants is too complicated, think again – Monty is here to share his simple approach to help you succeed every time
Growing from a cutting has a satisfaction that is greater than any other form of propagation
One of the effects of Covid 19 on gardens has been a huge increase in demand in plants and a matching shortage caused by the difficulties the trade has had in raising and distributing them during the pandemic. But every problem is an opportunity and if you cannot always buy your plants then it is time to start making them.
Propagation is one of those slightly intimidating terms that seems designed to measure your horticultural chops – it is as though there is a lurking exam paper that comes in tow. It can become a minefield that stops the joy in simply growing things.
But there is no need to be daunted by any kind of propagation, be it by seed, cuttings, division or layering. Some plants are easier than others but there is no mystique to it. Give it a go. The only right way is the one that works best for you. But perhaps there are some hints and tips that might short cut that experimental process.
In spring, herbaceous plants can be lifted and divided but most of the propagating time and space is taken up between February and May with seed sowing – although that continues right into early autumn. However once we get to mid-June taking cuttings starts to become a useful and important way of creating lots of new plants, easily and costing nothing. All my box hedging at Longmeadow was created from cuttings, as is all the yew hedging. I take cuttings from plants that might not survive the winter and cuttings from plants with characteristics of form, foliage or flower that I particularly like. I take cuttings from plants that were expensive or hard to acquire and cuttings from others just because it seems wasteful not to. Once you have the cutting habit it is very seductive!
New plants for free
In my 20s I was a little intimidated by cuttings, as though they were pitched at a grade of horticulture I had not yet properly attained, but that is nonsense. There is nothing to be wary of. In principle you take a healthy shoot, stick it in the ground or compost. Some plants, like willow or cornus, are desperate to form roots and grow without the hint of an RHS exam qualification in sight. Others can be a little more demanding and you have to accept a certain failure rate. But most will work if you understand a few basic principles.
A plant grown from a cutting will be exactly like its parent, unlike a seed that – assuming it is fertile – may just as well inherit the worst qualities of both parents as the best. Seeds saved from F1 hybrids for example, will not come true to type. But a cutting is bound to be exactly like the parent. So if you have a rose that is exactly the colour for you or perhaps you have a yew plant that seems to be especially good for hedging or topiary, any cuttings will share those characteristics.
A cutting does not need any goodness to form roots other than oxygen and water. Only once the roots have formed and the new plant starts to grow will they need some nutrition. So a growing medium that encourages dampness and air in some proportion will be more successful than a growing medium that is suitable for growing a rooted plant. You can bang a willow branch into dampish soil and be certain it will root and some plants, like pelargoniums, can be thrust into a glass of water, ignored for a few weeks and will still form healthy roots. However most fall between these two extremes.
Perlite is the perfect medium for allowing air in to the roots and retaining moisture without becoming waterlogged (which will rot the cutting and stop oxygen). I strongly
There is no need to be daunted by any kind of propagation. Some plants are easier than others but there is no mystique to it. Give it a go.
recommend taking most cuttings in a perlite/peat-free compost mix of at least 50:50 and perhaps ideally 75 per cent perlite and 25 per cent compost. In fact pure perlite works well for almost everything but has no goodness for the growing plant. Adding compost buys you time as the growing roots will have some nutrition.
Before you start taking material have your perlite and pots all ready so you can speed up the process. Have a flat surface that you can use as a kind of chopping board to cut on. Always use something sharp to take your cutting as a clean cut without any torn tissue to either the parent plant or the cut material. I like to take the cuttings with secateurs and then use a knife to trim them.
A huge amount of success with cuttings depends on how you handle the minutes after sourcing the material. This is because as soon as you cut your material from the parent plant, it is dying. The cut material will die by drying out – which is why you put cut flowers in water rather than an empty vase. The drier the cutting is before you pot it up and water it, the less likely it will be to form roots. Always have a polythene bag with you and put the cut material straight into it and keep it there until you are ready to pot them up. This slows down the drying out process. Cuttings taken early in the morning are likely to be more successful than those taken at midday because they will be turgid and full of moisture after the cool of the night. However I would qualify
that by pointing out that if you wait for the perfect moment nothing ever gets done. The best time to do anything in a garden is always when you have the time and right equipment to hand.
When choosing a suitable piece of plant to make a cutting, be it from a shrub like lavender, or a soft stemmed plant like a salvia or verbena, look for strong new growth without any flower buds. This is because the buds will use up a lot of the energy that would otherwise go into forming roots. If you have no choice but to take a shoot with a bud, remove it.
Between May and July most cuttings are likely to be softwood – which simply means they are formed of this season’s new growth which is soft and flexible. This is widely available as much new growth is being rapidly formed in early summer and is also very fast to strike and form new shoots – but also very fast to die unless treated right. Later in summer, from the end of July through to October, most cuttings are semiripe which means that they are taken from new growth that has had a chance to ripen and harden a little so that only the tips are floppy. This is much more robust and less demanding but a little slower to form roots. By and large semi-ripe cuttings are the best place to start and there is lots of suitable growth over the coming three months. Finally, from early autumn right through winter you can take hardwood cuttings from almost any shrub or tree. These are made up of entirely woody growth, which on deciduous plants will be leafless, and need much less urgency and finesse in collection and handling but can take up to six months to form roots.
Growing tips
By and large it is best to take softwood and semi-ripe cuttings from the end of a shoot. This can either be growing straight or a side shoot growing from the joint between a leaf and the stem. Keep the growing tip and cut a length a bit longer than needed. That length is not in itself significant but as a rule less than an inch is fiddly and more than 4-5in unnecessary. Unlike the previous two categories, you can take a length of hardwood, cut it into 6in lengths and, as long as they remain the right way up, use each section as a separate cutting.
When you have taken as many as you want, take each one out of the bag, trim them so that you cut just below a node – the point where leaves grow from the stem – and trim off all but the top pair of leaves. This reduces water loss and the demands on the new roots. Using a pencil to create the hole rather than forcing the stem into the compost, bury as much of the stem as possible below the remaining leaves.
I have not used hormone rooting powder for 25 years and regard it as unnecessary but others swear by it. If you do want to use it, dip the cutting in water then the powder or gel before inserting it into your perlite mix.
Plastic pots are better at retaining water, terracotta ones drain better. Placing the cuttings around the edge of the pot is said to help stop drying out. The average 3in pot can take at least four cuttings, more if they are small, as long as they’re not touching.
Water the pot well and then put it somewhere warm and bright but with some shade from the hottest sun that might dry it out. A heated mat helps enormously and one of the luxuries I have never regretted buying was my mist propagating system which has been operating for the past 26 years and helped produce thousands of plants from cuttings. But a propagating tray – basically a seed tray with a perspex lid – works well. The point is to keep the air moist so the plant does not dry out before it has a chance to produce roots. But failing all else investing in a hand mist sprayer and giving the pots a blast a couple of times a day makes a big difference.
You will know that the cuttings have rooted when you see new leaf growth or roots coming out of the bottom of the pot. This is the sign to carefully tip them out of the perlite, separate them and pot each one into a compost-based potting mix, with some perlite to encourage easy root growth.
You now have new plants! Each one will grow into a healthy adult with exactly the same behaviour, flowers, fruits and foliage. Growing anything from a cutting has its own special satisfaction that I have found is greater than any other form of propagation. There is an element of mystery to it that is deeply empowering, as though you have tapped into a life force that you did not realise was there. So take cuttings. Lots of them. Some will work better than others, but every one that does succeed is pure magic.