I thought I had lost the knack

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I used to be really good at propagating plants. My mother used to say that I was like her mother, who would stick a bit of something in the ground and it would grow. Many of the plants in my garden are derived from cuttings from elsewhere – a grape vine from the shared house I lived in twenty years ago, flowering shrubs from my mother’s garden, and from various other places such as the landscaping outside the buildings where I used to work or even sometimes a bit from a business park or a supermarket car park! Weigela, Forsythia, Phlomis, Buddleja, Abelia, Kolkwitzia, Salvia, Fuchsia, roses, rosemary, Hydrangea… plus others grown from collected seed such as broom, pheasant berry, tree peony and herbaceous plants like Sisyrinchium and lavender. Then of course once I had one I could create another to take with us when we moved house, then multiply them and spread them around – especially useful as we moved to a house with a big garden. Any spares were handy to give to friends or to have available whenever donations were needed for a charity plant sale. But then last year I thought I had lost it. Somehow nothing seemed to grow and I just ended up with lots of dead sticks. Very disheartening. I don’t know whether this lack of success was anything to do with the weather, the growing medium, the care (or lack of it), the time of year, or just because I was trying too hard but I thought I must have lost my ‘green fingers’. I didn’t give up though, because last winter the sudden onset of very cold weather killed off quite a few plants so I need to fill the gaps, and buying plants is expensive! Luckily this year things have taken off again and now I have pots of new plants taking over the patio! I’m getting through sacks of compost but even one pot-grown plant costs more than a whole sack of compost so even one success would make it worthwhile! And I’ll be ready next time the local school has a plant stall at their spring fete! All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2023.