Take basal shoot cuttings

Use young growth to make robust new plants, says Ruth

- Ruth Hayes

I HAVE been watching our returning perennials with excitement because there are one or two that I I want to take early cuttings from.

Clump-forming varieties such as lupins and delphiniums, and also phlox, salvias and asters, can be propagated by taking cuttings from the base - also known as basal cuttings.

This is an easy and reliable way of increasing plant stocks without spending money and if you take the cuttings now they should be ready to plant out in late summer or early autumn when the soil is still warm, so the young plants can get established before winter.

Alternatively, overwinter the plants in a greenhouse. They will die back but return to growth next spring when they can be hardened of and planted out when frosts are past.

Basal cuttings use the fresh young shoots that are taken from soil level, ideally with some of the woody basal material from just below the ground still attached. I carefully scrape a little soil away from the plant base to get at the more woody material, before re-firming it around the base.