Gardening Hacks and Tips
The Propagating Hack that Changed my Life
Water-wise and cheap to set up, propagating by cutting has become easier than it ever was before!
As we prepared to move house, I found myself dismayed by the number of rare or difficult-to-get plants that were in the ground. I wanted to take them with me!
The answer?
Propagation by cuttings!
This sounds like a simple solution but many of the Australian plants that I wanted to propagate are difficult to say the least. I watched as each time, the cuttings perished without striking.
I was particularly keen to propagate my Lemon Myrtle (Backhousia citriodora) tree as it had a lovely habit and wonderful leaves. The crop was not matched by the one I had in a pot. Lemon Myrtle are notoriously difficult to propagate from cuttings and extremely variable from seed propagation. I wanted a clone!
In the last few years, I must have taken more than one hundred cuttings of the Lemon Myrtle and none survived. Other plants were hit and miss with only a small portion of the Australian native trees striking. The Australian coleuses were the exception with almost 100% success.
