How to propagate plants in your garden

Propagating plants from cuttings is a task most master gardeners undertake from time to time. It is a great, inexpensive way to create a more luscious garden and is incredibly satisfying as you witness your new plants take root. Here are some simple tips to make  your attempts at propagating plants easy and more successful.

Both luck and skill are required to coax 10 centimetre (four inch) softwood cuttings to root.

• Take them from healthy stem tips in early to midsummer and insert them into a pot of damp rooting medium, which is usually sterile, soilless commercial potting medium, or a mixture of clean sand and peat moss.
• Numerous plants are willing to be propagated this way, including dusty miller, artemisia, Russian sage, and even some shrubs including buddleia and bluebeard.
• To reduce wilting, pinch off all but the top tuft of two or four leaves from each cutting.
• Then dip the cut ends into water and then into commercial rooting powder, which is available at garden centres, before tucking them into a pot filled with damp rooting medium.
• To maintain a high level of humidity, enclose each container in a roomy plastic bag.
• When kept in a warm, shady place, with close monitoring to ensure that the soil never dries out, at least half of the cuttings should root in four to six weeks. Some can even be rooted in a jar of water on a sunny windowsill.
• At the first sign of new growth, gently transplant the cuttings to containers of fresh potting soil, and pamper them in pots for another month or two before planting them in the garden.

Before you dig up crowded plants, prepare a bed so that you can replant the best divisions right away. Also water the old planting if needed, preferably the day before you dig, because digging is always easier, and fewer roots are broken, when you dig in soil that is slightly moist.

• Use a digging fork to loosen the soil on the outside of the clump, gradually working to the centre of the clump.
• As you encounter the root mass, try to get the fork beneath it, lifting it intact if you can. This is easily accomplished with a crowded clump of spring-flowering bulbs or plants with shallow roots, such as bee balm or lamb's ears.
• Because the roots are so heavy, it may not be practical to actually lift a huge clump of daylilies or hostas onto a tarp where you can meticulously divide the crowns. Instead, use a sharp spade to cut straight down through the root mass, cutting it into halves or fourths. Then lift the smaller chunks, and discard severely damaged roots and the crowns attached to them.
• Pry apart smaller clumps by inserting two garden forks, back to back, and levering the roots apart. You should still have plenty of healthy small clumps that you can divide for replanting.