Taking cuttings

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33774, 21 February 1975, Page 15

Taking cuttings

Geranium cuttings can be taken at almost any time of the year in warm areas.

However, there is a general preference for taking them between January and April as this will produce new plants in time for the following season. Propagation presents no real difficulties at all although rots and leaf spots may prove trouble ome if no safeguard is provided against them. Cuttings should only be taken from the best and healthiest plants, 3in to 4in long from the ends of sturdy shoots.

The bottom leaves should be trimmed oft and the cuttings left for a day or two before inserting them in a rooting medium containg 2 parts coarse sand to 1 part loam. Apply benlate as a control for disease and water sparingly. An appropriate rooting hormone can assist in proj moting rooting. The use of captan or benlate watered lightly into the soil surface can be recommended.

The Banksia rose, a delightful small yellow flowered climbing rose, much cherished in by-gone days, is not so easy to obtain these days. However, it strikes well from cuttings which can be taken from semi-hard

wood in February or from harwood in winter.

The cuttings should be taken from not less than pencil thick shoots but preferably thicker wood and made Bin to 9in long. Only the top two or three leaves should be retained and the base end could well be dipped in rooting hormone powder (although this is not essential) before planting. The cuttings should be set at 45deg angle with about three-quarters of their length in the soil. Any reasonable soil in a sheltered, moist but free-draining position in the garden will do.