HARDWOOD CUTTINGS

A few years ago I was involved in a project concentrating on horticultural therapy. The day centre was based in Newport County Mayo and at the time it was run from an old convent. The building had an environmental health warning on it as it was riddled with rising damp, woodworm and dry rot. Funding was being sought for a replacement building and in the mean time Nolene, the manager of the centre, was doing her best to keep people healthy by making sure that the trainees were outside as much as possible. The convent suffered from a lack of finances but the garden was a treasure to behold. The grounds covered about two acres and it was enough to keep the 20 or so people that worked there in food for the best part of the year as Nolene and the gang grew mountains of fresh fruit and vegetables. There were four very large polythene tunnels in the garden and in summer they were full to the brim with tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and a variety of summer vegetables. In winter though the tunnels manly lay empty barring a few over wintering houseplants and cleaned plant pots.

One winter I decided to make good use of one of the tunnels by planting hardwood cuttings of evergreen and deciduous plants. I hadn’t really had much experience growing cuttings from shrubs on a commercial level and decided to follow the textbook planting distances of about 30cm apart. This is fine when planting half a dozen but I wanted to start growing them in a big way to pot them up in summer and sell them on the Sunday market that was held in the village every week. I took cuttings of everything I could find including hebes, escallonia, hydrangeas, olearias and any other shrub that would grow well on the coast. By the time I had finished, the tunnel was full to the brim with cuttings that I had planted directly into the ground, all at a precise 30cm apart. They grew there happily all winter. Unfortunately for me the tunnel was needed in the spring so I was forced to pull them all up and replant them. Because I was limited for space I crammed them in to fish boxes for handiness. To give you some idea how well I packed them in I can say that I got about 300 Escallonia into one large fish box. Here the cuttings stayed quite happily until the summer where they were lifted out, separated and repotted into two litre pots. All of them survived and were no worse for wear for their cramped ordeal.

Hardwood cuttings, I can say from experience really want to survive and can withstand an awful lot of neglect. They can tolerate anything except drought (and being planted in the ground upside down!)

Taking hardwood cuttings

When the leaves have fallen from deciduous shrubs, this will be the time to take hardwood cuttings. Easy plants to try include willow (Salix), buddleia and dogwood (Cornus). Follow these easy steps to increase your shrub displays (or beg a cutting from friends and neighbours). A word of caution though about willow, I planted some sticks as markers in my garden one year, they rooted and grew to about six feet!

Cut pencil thick lengths (15-20cm) of woody, new growth. Make the cut above a bud at the top and below a bud at the bottom of the cutting

Choose a sheltered spot in the garden, out of direct sunlight but not in heavy shade.

Push the cuttings into a slit made in the soil with a spade. Fill in with soil, leaving a couple of buds exposed.

If you have heavy soil, line the slit with sand for drainage.

Label

Water in dry weather

Leave the cuttings until the following autumn when they will have rooted and be ready to move either into pots or to their planting position.

If you have fish boxes or even large plant pots, than fill them with soil and push the cuttings into those.

Do not let them dry out

Horticultural.