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Too early to take cuttings?
Tina_i_am
Posts: 173
I want to take cutting of my sarcococca confusa and my fatsia japonica. Is it too early to take cuttings now? I live in the north east of England. Lots of advice says late August, but I always wonder if the futher north you live you should do things a week or two earlire than down south
thanks in advance
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Any thoughts on this? Too early, even for the NE of England?
I'm in the North-west and it's starting to feel quite autumnal here, so think it would probably be worth a try for you. In the spring though, I always add on a week or two (or more!) before doing things that folk down south are doing
Assuming you own the parent plants, it costs you nothing so take 3 or 4 now (enough for one pot). Take another 3 or 4 in a couple of weeks. Possibly even take a few more into September. Label them with the date as well as the species. Note which does best and you'll have an indication for next year.
In my experience, the success or not of cuttings is less to do with when you take them (assuming you're broadly in the right season) and more to do with how you take them and how well you look after them. I'm still not very good at it, but I keep trying
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I spent part of Sunday morning in my front garden lying on an old shower curtain underneath my Amelanchia hedge trying to tease out some self rooted layered cuttings.
I have quite a few potted up. I also found one with a rooted shoot and I am hoping it will grow straight up. I have layered some of the root cuttings and will see what happens. This method certainly worked well with a virgina creeper.
I also took cuttings of Penstemon when I bought four rather overgrown plants off the rescue table . The cuttings are already putting up side shoots but not obviously rooting yet.
If you have already bought the plants and as long as you don't remove too much of the original you cannot really lose out.
If all my Amelanchia root cuttings actually sprout I am not quite sure where I can put them though.
Last edited: 16 August 2017 09:22:24
'You must have some bread with it me duck!'
Try your Penstemons in water, they root very quickly, I'm just potting up a second lot.
I'm sure you'll find a local plant sale or car boot where you can sell them or a local fund raiser charity who would be glad of the donations
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I took a few cuttings about a month ago, some are look good and others didn't last long at all. Not sure if they will last to give new plants but hydrangea, penstemon and forsythia are all looking well at the moment. The lavender didn't last longer than a week but as others have said, worth a try, nothing lost except half an hour of your time.
I had a very ragged and tatty looking old piece of lavender and from something I heard somewhere I buried the whole clump very deeply into the ground with only a little of the top showing .It seems to be growing well. It's worth a try.
'You must have some bread with it me duck!'