Rosemary Cuttings help needed

[fizzer]

Get rid of the rooting powder, most people overdo it any way ( only certain plants require the hormone treatment ) and try this. Wait a bit longer till the softwood has turned to semi hard/ hard wood, ( till it can hold its head up on its own ! ) preferably after flowering and take heel cuttings of shoots that bear no flowers. Place them down the SIDE of a pot of compost, water and put them in the shade and cool. Put as many heel cuttings around the circumference of the pot as you think, do not bag or cover. Cool, shaded and watered, early Autumn, some protection from the depths of winter cold. I got all my cuttings from Tesco/Sainsburys including many different varieties of Carnation. Ditch the Hormones. Regards, Mark

[fizzer]

Tescos finest WaterCress, works for me. Pick out the healthiest, largest pieces and throw them into your pond /water feature and despite a bit of die back they root and thrive. All they need is clean well oxygenated water. Spicey ! Regards, Mark

[dominic10]

Perhaps this is why cuttings I acquire which I just shove into a pot - as many as I can round the edge - work and the cuttings I lovingly take from home wither and die (but not my Rosemary cuttings)! I'm trying a curry plant in water to see if that roots. I must look up how to do carnation cuttings as we have bought some this year.

[Capsid]

Capsid - do you know what else roots easily in water? I know mint does. I've just done a Google search but without success.

I think you need a semi-woody stem which is lees prone to rotting. Off hand I can't recall what else I have tried. I reckon basil and oregano/marjoram might work.

[ohbeary]

yup, most things root better from semi ripe cuttings, did some rosemary from my hedge (pulled up, 7years old at least, bit tatty) put into john innes seed and cutting mix, left in shade and watered when I remembered, all doing well. A couple of the plants were taken to work and buried up to the green bit in the worst stoney soil, shaded until after midday, baked all afternoon and at the foot of a wall !! growing quite happily.
Took cuttings of "African Blue Basil" seed&cuttings mix again, doing fine.

[sarraceniac]

Get rid of the rooting powder, most people overdo it any way ( only certain plants require the hormone treatment ) and try this. Wait a bit longer till the softwood has turned to semi hard/ hard wood, ( till it can hold its head up on its own ! ) preferably after flowering and take heel cuttings of shoots that bear no flowers. Place them down the SIDE of a pot of compost, water and put them in the shade and cool. Put as many heel cuttings around the circumference of the pot as you think, do not bag or cover. Cool, shaded and watered, early Autumn, some protection from the depths of winter cold. I got all my cuttings from Tesco/Sainsburys including many different varieties of Carnation. Ditch the Hormones. Regards, Mark

I've done dozens this way with 90%+ success Fizzer. All my learned books tell me to take nodal cuttings which, to me, is rubbish. Heel cuttings strike far easier.

[LABOOTY]

My rosemary plant is now a very large bush how do i take a cutting ?

[valmarg]

I would take longish cuttings of the new growth. Strip most of the leaves off the bottom, and insert them round the edge of a 4.5" pot of 50/50 multipurpose compost and vermiculite. No need for a polythene bag. Keep moist, and in a few weeks/months you should have rooted cuttings. I find.

valmarg

[ohbeary]

My rosemary plant is now a very large bush how do i take a cutting ?

just said this elsewhere, put over bottomless bucket fill with soil/compost to new growth level and leave for a year, scrape away soil and seperate your new plants from the old stems if they havent rotted away.