Tips on taking cuttings!

[Scarlet]

Well, I take a million cuttings each year to increase my stock. I'm not always successful but if you taking a dozen or so you are sure to get one or two plants for your effort.

Now is supposed to be a good time to take cuttings from penstemons, hydrangeas, fuschias. I've just taken a few from a laveteria.

My dahlia cuttings have been a disaster but I've got some great plants in the GH that I took in the autumn that are ready to go out in the garden.

Penstemon


I've forgotten what this is - VC help!


Veronica


I've just taken a cutting of a neighbours clematis....they aren't going so well.

Anyone else taking cuttings?
What is usually successful for you and when are you taking it?
Do you do anything special or just bung it in some water?

[veggiechicken]

Looks like Verbena - maybe bonariensis.
I'm a bung it in water or straight in the soil sort of chicken. There are 7 glass jars of herb cuttings on the window sill as we speak.

[Scarlet]

That's it!! verbena! It doesn't overwinter in my garden

[veggiechicken]

Does here and self seeds. They're popping up in all sorts of odd places but I don't mind as the Goldfinches flock to the seed heads.

[Scarlet]

I love it and would love it to set seed here.

[nickdub]

My main tip with taking cuttings is, don't get caught - v. embarrassing. :-)

[mcdood]

I don't do masses of cuttings but have reasonable success. With softwood cuttings other than pelargoniums I would cover with a supported plastic bag or a propagator lid. Keep warm on a light windowsill but out of direct sunlight. I take the cover off every day/other day to remove condensation and freshen the air. What went wrong with your dahlia cuttings?

[muck lover]

A couple of years ago I put twelve black currant cuttings in three pots. Every blasted one grow healthy roots and as I am psychologically unable to throw a healthy rooted cutting I ended up trying to find homes for eight little black currant bushes. One I gave to a complete stranger I got chatting to at the garden centre.
I now have a grand total of seven black current bushes growing about the place. When they all reach full yield the entire Muck Lover family should be purple.

[Scarlet]

I don't do masses of cuttings but have reasonable success. With softwood cuttings other than pelargoniums I would cover with a supported plastic bag or a propagator lid. Keep warm on a light windowsill but out of direct sunlight. I take the cover off every day/other day to remove condensation and freshen the air. What went wrong with your dahlia cuttings?

They just sat there and rotted- they didn't look too wet. They were sat in a propagator with bottom heat.
I also had a cooking accident while I left them on a sunny windowsill.....but I honestly took loads... Just a few put out roots.

#And I tried a few different ways, with a bag, with lots or perlite/grit. I was very disappointed. Though I will try again.

[Small pumpkin]

I'm trying the VC approach. Cuttings in a bucket of water.

[mcdood]

They just sat there and rotted- they didn't look too wet. They were sat in a propagator with bottom heat.
I also had a cooking accident while I left them on a sunny windowsill.....but I honestly took loads... Just a few put out roots.

#And I tried a few different ways, with a bag, with lots or perlite/grit. I was very disappointed. Though I will try again.

Sounds like you had a good go at it. The only thing I can think of is did you take the cutting right from the base so that you actually take a very small bit of the tuber with it. Sometimes gently pulling rather than using a knife works better and I don't trim the bottom. Just take a fair number of the leaves off to reduce transpiration as you normally would and then put into compost and cover. Still plenty of time to take more this year

[Scarlet]

I used a knife, cutting away a small bit of tuber. I will try again....but I've gone a bit overboard with division
But I would love to get it to work!!

[Ocelot]

For softwood cuttings I take a sharp knife and cut down about three leaf nodes of vigorous current-season's growth, stripping off lower leaves, and many at the top and then put them in very gritty compost in a covered seed tray, keeping the whole area moist. It works with about 50% of my attempts, some take easier than others.

I haven't tried tuber or sectional cuttings.

Regarding blackcurrants - I have many bushes (redcurrants too) that I have grown from hardwood cuttings (not to mention other shrubs). Sometimes if you do too many you have far too many shrubs than you can ever need!

[veggiechicken]

I have buckets/pots of water dotted around the garden into which I put most of the bits I prune off fruit bushes and shrubs. Then I ignore them for several months until the bucket is stuffed full of roots and I have to find homes for all the new plants.
There are jamjars in the GH for the same purpose..

[SarrissUK]

I have tried cuttings of clematis in water - they rotted or just plain died. In compost - they died. Straight in the ground - they died. The only thing I've not done, is layering.
Have you ever managed to grow them from cuttings?

I take cuttings of most herbs, especially mint when I need more plants, but also rosemary.

I agree with Nick - don't get caught haha I've taken cuttings from plants and bushes in my local park and got caught a few times haha