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Hi Diarmuid

About 20 years ago my grandad gave my mum a rose bush for her birthday. Sadly he died a few months later. The rose bush is still thriving in the garden, however my mum is planning to move and we don’t want to leave behind such a precious plant.

Would you be able to offer any advice regarding taking a cutting from the original so we might be able to continue to remember our grandad through future rose bushes?

Many thanks, Claire Pearce

Hi Claire

That’s a great idea and now is the perfect time to do this. It’s called taking a hardwood cutting and I’d recommend you take a good few cuttings as insurance. Choose strong, healthy shoots from this year’s growth which are roughly the thickness of a pencil. Take up to a foot in length and remove the leaves and soft growing tip.

Use clean secateurs and make a sloping cut at the top to allow rain water to run off and as a reminder of which end is which.

Pot up in gritty compost inserting two thirds of the cutting into the compost. Pots can be left in a sheltered place outdoors, in a cold frame or in an unheated greenhouse, but don’t let cuttings dry out.

Buds will form along the buried stem and above ground, then next autumn you will be able to plant them at your mum’s new place.

Diarmuid