Earlier this year I took soft wood cuttings of some of my perennials. I love the magic of propagation. There’s nothing like watching what is effectively a stick or a stem start to sprout new growth from being stuck in some compost. When I first started I couldn’t believe it was so easy! Don’t get me wrong, I’ve made mistakes, been too impatient, lost plenty of them, and yet, there is still that lovely moment when you see success and the buds beginning to swell and a new stem and leaf form from the original cutting. And then, you have got yourself valuable new plants to fill out your borders and beds. When we moved here a few years ago, the garden was so overgrown, we pretty much had to clear it all, and start from scratch. That’s no mean feat, especially in terms of the cost of buying so many plants to fill borders. By propagating your own, whilst it takes a little longer, it does save oodles of money. In addition, I might have bought one type of plant, but to get cohesion and rhythm to my planting design, repeating the same plant several times, can really help bring things together, so any opportunity I have to create more new plants, that are exactly the same as the original is great, and without the cost of having to buy lots in the first instance. So, this year I have several new Perovskia – ‘Blue Spire’, Lonicera nitida and even got some fantastic clematis too. And that’s without all the fabulous self seeders in the garden that do their own thing of creating new plants, without any intervention from me at all – aside from moving them to spots in the garden where I’d like them to be. Another added bonus is you have lots of opportunities to give them away as gifts to family and friends and the joy of that is that you often get other plants in return. We’re a generous lot us gardeners! So, this year I’ve swapped clematis for hebes, streptocarpus for ligularia and no doubt that will continue for a while yet as the season progresses. If you don’t yet know how to take cuttings and swell the numbers of plants you have in your garden then get in contact for ways to let me help you learn.
Categories: Gardening, Propagation