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what are you propagating?

cotty1000cotty1000 Posts: 293
in The potting shed

I have been busy this year dividing hostas and some sedum. I have filled up most of my trays with seed,with varying degrees of success,and the other day I  took some cuttings. Penstemon,scabious,bowles mauve and campanula. I came to water them this morning and a caterpillar had started to eat some and lay eggs. I wouldn't mind but they had bags on tied around with royal mail elastic bands(they drop them everywhere).

What have you been up to?

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  • crazyflowercrazyflower Posts: 69

    I have a wonderful big bowles mauve which has flowers on it winter and summer, think i'll take cuttings from it to give to friends and family, have u taken them before cotty? How have u taken them? softwood and covered with plastic?  I have some penstemon as well, i'll do those at same time

  • crazyflowercrazyflower Posts: 69

    cotty just read ur post again, u've put plastic bags over, r they in a greenhouse? shud I just leave them outside? I have taken a few cuttings before

  • FleurisaFleurisa Posts: 779

    The caterpillar must have already been on your cuttings.

  • cotty1000cotty1000 Posts: 293

    I had to dig up one plant as it was smothering everything around it. I have taken a few cuttings over the years. I have an out building that is joined to the house and is pretty warm at this time of year and it gets sunlight in the morning. I cover them with bags and I water and spray them. I remove lower leaves and dip in hormone rooting powder. Then just hope. I am planning on giving these to my daughters school. I have had to trim my cuttings from previous years as they get big quickly. But when you see all the butterflies on them you can't help but love them. Hope this helps.

    Trial and error but it is fun.

  • cotty1000cotty1000 Posts: 293

    I think so fleurisa,I couldn't bring myself to kill it as I love butterflies so much.

  • crazyflowercrazyflower Posts: 69

    Yeah the bowles mauve is getting big, hoping its stopped growing now

  • cotty1000cotty1000 Posts: 293

    It will carry on,believe me they get big.

    I am going to sow some sunflowers and marigolds this weekend with my young girls,hopefully they will get the gardening bug.

  • ObelixxObelixx Vendée, Western FrancePosts: 18,191

    Cuttings - penstemon, pink buddleia and clematis but it was too soon for the latter so only one is doing anything.  I shall layer some and take cuttings of more at the normal time in summer.   Might try cornus alba sibirica when I prune those this weekend.

    Divisions - assorted hostas and hardy geraniums, pink and white perennial cornflowers, shasta daisies, physostegia, basil mint, lemon balm, ginger mint, echinops ritro, giant scabious and there'll be lysimachia clethroides, hemerocallis and phlomis russelliana to come as I work my way round the borders.

    When's the best time to do Bowles Mauve cuttings?  I have a variegated form that I'd love to propagate.

     

    "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
  • punkdocpunkdoc Sheffield, Derbyshire border.Posts: 7,264

    Dont forget that Erysimum Bowles Mauve tends to be fairly short lived, it literally flowers itself to death, so it is always worth having cuttings to replace it.

    Woke up again
    To my chagrin
    Getting sick and tired of
    Feeling sick and tired again
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 13,633

    I do erysimum cuttings later on in the year, around August time , so that they have good roots before the winter.

    Try and use unflowered shoots.

    You don't stop doing new things because you get old, you get old because you stop doing new things. <3
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