Propagating by cuttings

One of our favourite ways of propagating herbs is by soft tip cuttings and June and July is the perfect time to do it. 

There’s plenty of material on the plants and they’re bursting to grow, making cuttings easy to strike. Here at our family-run nursery we propagate year-round but summer is the peak time for soft tip cuttings.

Many of our favourite culinary herbs can be propagated this way, including rosemary, thyme, sage, French tarragon, lemon verbena and mint.

Here are our top tips for soft tip cuttings for herbs.

1. Fill a small, clean pot with a cuttings or multi-purpose compost. You can add a little perlite or horticultural grit and this is a good idea for lavender cuttings.
2. Use a clean pair of scissors or secateurs to snip off a tip of up to 10cm in length. If you can’t pot up immediately, put the cutting into a plastic bag, seal it and place in the fridge. It will last there for a few days.
3. Take off the bottom leaves and cut the stem to just below where a leaf joined it – called a leaf node.
4. Make a hole in the compost with a small dibber or pencil and insert the cutting. You can put several around the edge of a pot.
5. Water it and put the pot in a propagator or cover with a clear plastic bag to keep the moisture in.
6. Make sure you label the pot!
7. Keep an eye on it and remove the bag when you see signs of root growth. This can be anything from three to five days or two to three weeks depending on the plant.
8. Pot on cuttings into good peat-free compost and grow on until the autumn when you can plant them out.

Soft tip cuttings can also be rooted in water. Put some cellophane or clingfilm over a jam jar of water, make some holes and insert the cuttings. It’s a great project to do with children as they love seeing the roots appearing.

And if you don’t want to propagate or are looking for something a bit different, do head over to our online shop to see our full range of organic, peat-free herbs.

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