Taking Cuttings

stressedoutmumof1

Hi, I wondered if anyone could give me some advice?

Last year my father died, and I am now in the process of selling his house. He had a beautiful garden with lots of plants and flowers, and I wanted to take some cuttings to plant in my garden, it would make me feel like he is still around in some way.

Anyway, I don't know how to go about this as I have no gardening knowledge at all! What do I need to do - an idiots guide please!

Thanks

DaftyDuck

Lovely idea, have done it myself. OK, there are books and books on cuttings, and some plants are extremely difficult (impossible... nearly) to take cuttings. Others are very easy. So, firstly, if you identify the plants, or put up a photo, someone will be able to give specific advice.

Before taking cuttings, think about root division. If it is a clumpy plant, can you bravely divide it in half with a spade? If there are multiple stems going into the soil, this is often the best way. Teasing the soil gently from soem stems may well reveal that some of the side ones already have roots, and can be gently parted from the main plant. For very large clumps, dig the whole clump up, stick two garden forks in back to back in the middle, and lever apart.

The very basic idea of a cutting is to take a bit of stem, put it in soil to root, and then grow it on to full plant. It's not worth doing for most trees, certainly not for fruit trees. It works well on most shrubs.

The best time for taking cuttings is generally when the plant is more active than it will be now, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, and many plants take cutting passable well now (and it is / has been very mild).

Normally, a woody stem about 6 - 9" long is best, and try and get a bit with many leaf nodes or buds down the side. Cut just below a bud or, even better, tear a twiglet of that size from a larger branch, leaving a heel from the larger branch on.

Remove all the lower leaves, just leaving a few towards the tip. (Rooting hormone, £1 in £££shops (bit more in Wilko, costly in Homebase) really does improve the success rate. Dip cutting in the tub and get the dust all over it.)

Plant your cutting in well-drained soil in a pot. A cutting potting compost is ideal, or you can just add grit to any compost. For your project, worth buying the best mix from a garden centre. Ensure no leaves are touching the soil.

The cutting needs water, but must't get too wet. Contradictory really, so regularly water, never leave standing in water, keep out of direct sun, but not in dark. WAIT... ALWAYS WAIT.... The cutting will either die, or do nothing... obvious. Don't dig it up for a look, even if it starts growing up top. Still may have no real roots. Best thing is to wait for the roots to poke their way out of the bottom of the pot.

There is an easier way for smaller plants. Go to the garden centre. Buy some cheap, pretty plants (explain what you want and why, and they'll help. Take photos of the garden to them to give them all the info they need. Take your cheap tat plants (I'm sure they are lovely), dig up your dad's lovely ones, and replace with the garden centre ones. I'm sure a new owner will love those just as much as he'd have loved your dad's... rather more important to you.

If you give us details of what's there, I'm sure there will be better precise detail from others. Photos (ideally from spring or summer last year) will help.

Good luck...

(... back soon for edit to complete.... work calling on t'other computer...)

peter_the_piper

I doubt anyone could have put it better.

stressedoutmumof1

Wow DaftyDuck what an informative post - thank you :T

I guess the best thing to do is take quite a few cuttings so hopefully at least some will take!!

Thanks again for taking the time to respond