How to grow basil from cuttings

Constant supply of basil in the winter time – that’s my goal this year. I have checked internet and found out that some of the garden magicians grow basil from cuttings. I have never done it before. Usually I buy ready seedings or grow basil from seeds.

The idea of growing basil from cuttings and starting this before winter seemed to be puzzling to me, far more easy and faster than growing from seedlings. Trying if this works will be exciting, especially now when it’s time to cut off the basil from garden before the first frost will kill it. 

Another way to keep basil through the winter is trimming it heavily and taking home - I've done it one year with great success.

Current basil was fading away already, so I made fresh pesto from leaves, but also from part of the stems I took basil cuttings.  Removed majority of leaves and placed them in a fancy liqueur glass by sunny windowsill – that is suppose to guarantee 100% success rate. Fancy glass including of course…

This is done exactly same as I’ve done with brugmansia cuttings taken  in the autumn as well.

Will keep you posted if it rooted or what else happened.

Would you give it a try, as well? 

Rose cuttings - 2 trials

My second rose cuttings taken from Mary Rose plant seem to be doing fine – look at the photo, do you think they will survive? I think there is a big chance.

In one of my last posts I was writing about my problematic Mary Rose producing lots of suckers, which sometimes pop up 2 meters away from the original plant! Then I have to rip off 2 meters of already established soil, which is something I shouldn’t do and also you shouldn’t do as well. Turning the soil means bringing new weed seeds from the deeper soil levels to the top. The less you turn the soil, the better for you – less weeding, less work.

Suckers are weakening the original plant, especially these style of suckers, which can be spotted after the plant took the effort of growing 2 meters of them. I can see clearly on my roses, how weak they are – they seem to be half dead, blooming, right, but only few flowers in a season.

Mary Rose is the only rose I have with this kind of problem – others are fine. So, I decided to give a try and propagate my Mary Rose from cutting, to see the difference because I believe she can bloom much more profuse.

I took first rose cuttings 5 weeks ago. From all info I’ve read, it says take the stem, which just finished blooming. Deadhead and divide in few 12-15 cm pieces, leaving 1 pair of leaves on the top of each cutting. The bottom part of each cutting should be cut at about 45 degree angle, leaving long nice cut. To this instruction I’ve added one my own invention – I shortened the rose leaves to only last 1 pair. Then I used hormone and sticked the cuttings in the pot, keeping the soil damp. I have not covered them what so ever and the pot was standing on the northern windowsill.

Very soon – 7-10 days - I’ve noticed stems were getting brown and died in 14 days. I decided to not give up so easy and try again.

After removing dead rose cuttings from the pot, I sticked fresh ones. I only made one change – I didn’t touch the left 1 leaf.

Very soon – in about one week – I noticed there is no browning, but rather positive change on the stems – buds started to grow! This time none of the cuttings died, all are green. Only the leaves started to wilt and fall, but this seems to not disturb the process. Now, as you can see on the photo – only one leaf is left.

Notice please that stems are not sticked in the soil up to the neck (LOL), only half. So far so good.
Cross your fingers for Mary Rose! And for me! (eeeeh, why not?!), please....

What is your experience with rose softwood propagation?

Leggy seedlings

Tomatoes seedlings are bit leggy, but id doesn't worry me at all. While planting, seedling will lay under the soil, entire stem will produce roots. Only leaves and about 3 cm of stem will stay out.
I decided to not use additional artificial light - sunny windowsill should do, as long as volcanic ash cloud will not disrupt.
Tomatoes - Solanum lycopersicum

Hydrangea propagation easiest way

Hydrangea paniculata "Limelight" 1 year old

While pruning hydrangea paniculata Limelight last year - I looked at the cuttings and thought it is a total waste just to send it to hydrangea's heaven. Why not to try to have even more Limelights? I cut them into 20 cm pieces, made sure there are at least 2-3 pairs of buds - and just like this, stucked them into pot filled with plain garden soil. No tricks. No gimmicks. No growth hormone. Niente. Nothing.
Why 2 pairs of buds? 1 pair above the soil, so it can grow leaves, 1-2 pairs in the soil for growing roots. It was 8 cuttings in total. All of them started to grow in 2 months. 
This baby one on the picture will be send tomorrow in exchange for comfrey (Symphytum o.) - I hope she will have good travel.
Comfrey is very valuable source of fertility in the organic garden. Great source of potassium - important element for setting fruits, seeds and flowers. Comfrey leaves contain 2-3 times more potassium than manure.

How to root brugmansia cuttings. Brugmansia or datura?

How to deal with brugmansia/datura cuttings.

I have placed them directly to water in November. They were there until last weekend. As you can see roots have appeared, although occasionally all water was gone - two strongest cuttings have survived. After roots appear, you may just pot them in fine gardening soil. Keep the water moist, as they love a lot of water.

Brugmansia or datura?

It looks like all of them are Brugmansia right now. Oficially, botanically there is no name like 'datura', however there is a difference in flower characteristics. They are all considered as Brugmansia.

Brugmansia flowers are usually pendulous and hanging down, while Datura flowers are rather erect, facing up or slightly down.

My huge brugmansia came to me thanks to blogging.

These brugmansia cuttings come from a very nice person living few streets away, that I met thanks to blogging! Can you believe it? I am just about to tell you how it has happened.

One day I made post about beautiful brugs I saw in Warsaw, and somebody came and made a comment. I made comment back. He e-mailed me pictures of his brugs growing in the garden (taken indoor for winter). After getting the permission to publish pictures of huge brugmansias growing in their garden, I asked for cuttings in the proper time, which is in the Autumn.

So, one cold day in November, just before real cold has come, I went to pick it up. To my great surprise I have received not only cuttings, but also one huge brugmansia plant dug out from the garden, plus some other interesting plants.

I kept the big brugmansia plant mostly dry entire winter, watering it very sparingly every 2-3 weeks.

It seems very fine today and has to wait until May 20th - thats the last frost date in Poland.