Growing Herbs from cuttings

[veggiechicken]

How to grow herb plants FREE.

Shall we share our methods, tips, questions/answers about propagating herbs from cuttings?

This week I'm going to take soft wood cuttings of lavender, rosemary and sage and stick them in pots of gritty soil to root.

Cuttings of Apple, Basil and Skopelos mint which will be rooted in a glass of water before planting up.

How about you???

EDIT Companion thread for Flowers and Shrub cuttings at https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...ngs_97100.html

[Bren In Pots]

Cuttings of Apple, Basil and Skopelos mint which will be rooted in a glass of water before planting up.

How about you???

A week ago I potted up some Basil i'd had rooting in water and I've got some mint that's almost ready to go into compost.

[Runtpuppy]

I have 4 (or maybe 5?) rosemary plants grown from cuttings. All my mint has been grown by sticking defoliated store-bought stems into a bit of water. I haven't done it this year, but last year, I grew lots of basil from cuttings.

Take a few stems, stick them in empty spice bottles filled with water and let them sit on the window sill.

That's how I do it.

Unrelated: Last year, I grew only tomato moneymaker, from 2 cuttings I had saved from a sorry looking plant I bought the year before that. Put the cuttings in water towards the end of summer. Left them to get on with it all winter. Come new year, they started getting a little enthusiastic so I potted them up... et voila! Bitten by grow-your-own bug.

[nickdub]

If you already have a donor plant in your garden the simplest way for herbs like sage, mint etc is to put a couple of shovel-fulls of loose soil over the base of them and give a bit of a watering - the resultant mound can be divided up in 6 weeks or so when a lot of the pieces will have already developed roots ( lazy man's cuttings)

[Small pumpkin]

I'm going to be doing lots of mint cuttings..... Sort of! I'm going to split and repot. Some variety are struggling this year. They need a little TLC. I'll take rosemary cuttings when it's big enough ( only sowed the seeds this year ).

Can you take thyme cuttings ? I'd like a lot more thyme plants.

[HoneyChild]

I accidentally rooted a thyme cutting. I must've been taking cuttings to use in the kitchen and one of them fell into the compost and got watered in. It now has roots. Not sure how it's doing now as it's a bit of a jungle there.

[veggiechicken]

Thyme options seem to be - softwood cuttings, layering, division............maybe more!

Layering by pinning down stems on existing plants, using a forked twig/bent wire/paperclip, seems the simplest.

I'm going to try that and the cuttings.
My thymes are unnamed ones but there are some gorgeous ones around.

[Ocelot]

I've done quite a few herb softwood cuttings the traditional way this year - ie by taking a non-flowering stem of this years's growth, stripping off the lower leaves, cutting below a leaf point and sticking in a covered seed tray in moist, gritty compost, spraying the leaves once a day. Using this method I've done: catnip, wormwood, southernwood, hyssop, rue and some others. I've also managed to get about half the lavandula dentata cuttings I took to come up, after a branch snapped off when I was repotting.

Using water I've done mint and Monarda.

I've never managed to take successful cuttings of thyme or prostanthera, however. Might try layering as suggested, as it works for blackcurrant (as, of course, does hardwood cuttings).

I've never bothered trying cuttings of lemon balm or Valerian, as they come up like weeds everywhere in the garden!

[veggiechicken]

Spurred on by SP's question about thyme, I've just taken some thyme cuttings, much as you describe, Ocelot, though they won't be sprayed each day. I'm too lazy for that so I've covered the pots with a propagator lid.
Found a variegated thyme in a pot so I've taken some of those too.

Blackcurrant bush cuttings root easily in a bucket of water. I've grown Pineapple sage (Salvia elegans) that way too - one of my favourite smelly plants.

[Small pumpkin]

I might have to add mint splitting and thyme cuttings to my to do list tomorrow .

[Ocelot]

I think I'll take some Salvia Elegans cuttings in water, now you mention it, Veggie Chicken. Never tried it before. They don't always last the winter for me, even in the house on a sunny window. I always call it Tangerine Sage, although I think Pineapple and Tangerine are synonyms.

I just put some Perovskia cuttings on last week. Let's see how they do!

[veggiechicken]

Now you've mentioned it, Ocelot, I'm going to start some too.
My original one was 4-5' high and I loved walking past it. Unfortunately, I gave it a severe haircut and it didn't recover.
Fortunately, I'd started another one in the garden last year and it has plenty of shoots. It'll have a few less in about 10 minutes.


EDIT - Done
Shall I root some for you SP?

[Small pumpkin]

Now you've mentioned it, Ocelot, I'm going to start some too.
My original one was 4-5' high and I loved walking past it. Unfortunately, I gave it a severe haircut and it didn't recover.
Fortunately, I'd started another one in the garden last year and it has plenty of shoots. It'll have a few less in about 10 minutes.


EDIT - Done
Shall I root some for you SP?

Give me a minute. I have to go google. Find out what the flipping heck you're both on about

[veggiechicken]

You put a link to tangerine sage on the 100 packets of seed thread!!

[Small pumpkin]

Ok , I know what you're on about now .
Thanks for the offer VC but I have a big one of those in my front garden . I love the flowers on it. Do you actually use it for culinary stuff ?