Growing rooted cuttings in your home nursery

For plants you're so fond of you'd like another, growing rooted cuttings is a technique every gardner needs to master. Make it the basis of your very own home nursery, where you can raise all sorts of young plants.

1. Take a healthy stem and remove large, older leaves.
2. Cut the stem into eight-centimetre sections, making sure that each section has a leaf joint (node) and two or three leaves. Remove any flowers or buds.
3. Dip the base of each cutting into rooting powder and shake off the excess.
4. Plant in moist seed-starting mix or other medium, pressing gently to make sure there are no air pockets around the stem.

Having your own home nursery is an economical, enjoyable way  grow extra plants to fill your garden or to swap with fellow gardeners.

• You can use it to grow annuals, perennials and woody plants, and it can be a good place to grow rooted cuttings.
• A home nursery need not be elaborate; you can do a lot in a small, sheltered, out-of-the-way spot. Any area that gets sun and has access to water will do.
• Set aside a shady corner of your nursery for sun-shy or fragile plants.

• Grow plants in containers in your home nursery. This makes them easy to move around and keeps their root systems compact. You can use the same plastic pots that commercial nurseries use, although many types of containers will do.
• Fill a framed bed with a half-and-half mixture of peat moss and sand and use it to grow rooted cuttings or perennials that have been divided into small clumps. Kept moist; they will quickly grow roots and will be easy to lift and transplant.
• Very young trees, shrubs and perennials bought from a commercial or mail-order nursery are usually inexpensive, but they may be too small to plant out right away in the garden. Raise these "babies" in your home nursery for a season or two until they're large enough to take their place in your garden.