I have attempted taking cuttings previously, with varying degrees of success. Last year I took any number on the hoof as a result of snow damage and the general notion that I might be able to bulk out our meagre hedge with some new plants propagated in this fashion. Of course when I took these cuttings I had yet to find anything approaching a reasonable or simple explanation as to how to do it, and so it was all highly experimental based solely on the basis that I knew it could be done, although not how it could be done:
- Gooseberry Cuttings (hardwood): I took about a dozen from broken branches and I have to say they were an unqualified disaster, as things stand only two survive, and they are only clinging on at best … I knew it had all gone wrong when the dogs started chewing the tops off them!?
- Sallow Willow Cuttings (hardwood): I had attempted about 20 – 30 of these based on once hearing that they were easily propagated by sticking a branch in the ground, in fact I know they’re easy to propagate and so I was pretty disappointed that only about 1/3 of them have taken. 10 plants just isn’t going to help me out with the hedge, it’s just not enough!
- Red/Black Currants Cuttings (hardwood): If the gooseberries were a disaster then the currants were my highest achievement out of the lot. I think every one of the c. 20 cuttings has taken. Surprising given they were taken in much the same fashion as the gooseberry. I really don’t have room right now for this many fruit bushes, however, I am keen to add them into the hedge for a bit of extra fruit for the birds and the kids.
- Hebe Cuttings (softwood): I only attempted a few of these, taken from plants I had been gifted, and not only did they take without complaint or consideration I also planted them out in the garden this summer and they have really taken off in a big big way … again I’m now thinking ‘hedge’ and I suspect I’ll be taking more cuttings for inclusion in the whole ‘hedge project’ thing.
- Flowering Currant Cuttings (softwood): Disaster, just awful, dead dead dead …. worse than the gooseberries!
- Dog Rose Cuttings (softwood): Another complete disaster … withered and died.
Anyway, so as you can see, not the best of luck the last few times I attempted cuttings. I did and do however still want to use the Willow in the hedge and I would like the option to take cuttings in the future so I really need to learn how to do it properly, which probably explains why I spent the afternoon earlier in the week putting together 64 hardwood Willow cuttings.
I finally managed to track down some easy to follow instructions (in the book ‘Gardening Under Plastic‘) and have ploughed on full steam ahead. The advice in the book suggests that I shouldn’t be doing this until November, but given that the parent plant has already lost most of it’s leaves and since I’m an impatient so-and-so sometimes I decided to get stuck in … it’ll either work or it won’t.
I already had the rooting hormone from my last attempt at cuttings and I had gone out and bought some root trainers which provide for the same depth as the pots that were recommended – this is why I need simple clear instructions, I’m hopeless at sticking to them! I’m fairly confident now, having completed the task and I having ensconced them in the tunnel for the duration of the winter, with luck, by this time next year I’ll have a host of trees waiting to be added to our hedge-to-be … it can’t really be called a hedge as things stand!
In fact while I’m talking about it I may as well fill you in. The hedge project is ongoing and is really an attempt to shelter what is an extremely exposed garden unfortunately the exposure makes it difficult to grow anything including, so it would seem, the hedge. Originally we had planted holly, hawthorn and snowberry and then later I added some of the aforementioned Willow, the holly didn’t make it and out of the 20 plants that went in only one remains (and that’s a sorry soul), everything else though has survived it’s first year.
Clearly I can’t keep buying plants for the hedge, I still have 60 meters worth of hedging to go and we’re not made of money so propagating our own plants seems like the most cost effective (albeit slow) option. No doubt I’ll be returning to this topic given it’s general importance to establishing the garden more generally and helping to develop a space in which we can actually grow stuff!
Tags: cuttings, propagation, willow