New plants from old

Freebies, don’t you love them?  If I can get the technique right, then I should have dozens and dozens of new little plants this autumn.

I’ve been propagating like mad this week.   Racing out (well, wading out in the heat) to the calabert garden and snipping bits, placing them in plastic bags and heading up to the potting shed for a spot of propagating.

These huge santolinas are my starting point. I first did my usual spring or late autumn technique of small cuttings into my mix of old compost, sand and perlite.   But the addition of the plastic bag over the top proved too warm in this weather.

So I have modified the method by doing without any covering.   And hiding the plants out of the sunlight and heat by putting them underneath tables and staging in the potting shed.

Now where’s my list of the plants from which I have taken cuttings? That will teach me to tidy my office. Actually my office is more pots of jams than anything else right now. But that’s normal for August. Just the extra mirabelles and aubergine pickles to go.

Here it is: cistus hybridus, cistus salvifolius, teucrum flavum, cistus dubius, centranthus ruber, lavender stoechas, teucrum fruticans, lavender alba, bupleurum fruticans, cistus purpurea, santolina primrose gem, ballota, and of course, Andrew’s original santolina.

So satisfying.