Sooner or later, every gardening year brings the moment when somebody hands you a twig over the fence. A piece of blackcurrant, a shoot off the fuchsia that has stood in the neighbour's yard for thirty years. That is how people used to come by their plants.
The remarkable part: it still works exactly as well as it did back then. A sharp knife, a pot of lean compost and an upturned preserving jar are enough for the great majority of shrubs and perennials in our gardens.
One thing at a time: why a cutting comes true to variety and a seed does not, where exactly the cut goes, which method belongs to which season, and what to make of rooting powder and willow water.
At a glance
- Cuttings and layers are clones, seeds are not. A shoot propagated vegetatively carries the mother plant's characteristics exactly. From the seed of a named variety you almost never get that same variety again.
- The cut goes close below the node. That is where the dividing tissue sits, and where the growth substance coming down from the leaves builds up. A cutting that ends halfway along the stem roots less readily.
- Lean substrate, no fertiliser. Rich compost makes a cutting rot instead of forming roots. Seed compost with sand added is the old answer.
- Halve the leaf area, keep the air humid. A cutting cannot drink yet, but it can already transpire. The preserving jar closes exactly that gap.
- Every season has its method. Softwood cuttings in summer, hardwood cuttings in winter, layering in spring, division in autumn.
Why a cutting comes true to variety and a seed does not
A variety is not a species. Fig ‘Brown Turkey’ is one single plant that somebody selected at some point and then passed on vegetatively over and over. Every specimen of that variety is a piece of the same original plant. A cutting changes nothing about this: it is not a new individual, it is a detached piece of the old one. That is why the fruit tastes the same, and why ripening falls into the same window, shifted only by site and weather. A clone is not entirely rigid, mind you: bud mutations are perfectly normal in fruit, and whole families of varieties have come out of them, among them the redder-colouring forms of well-known apples.
A seed, by contrast, comes out of a fertilisation. With open-pollinated vegetables the variety holds anyway, because generations of selection have worked towards uniformity. With fruit trees, roses and most ornamental perennials it does not hold: sow the pip of an apple ‘Boskoop’ and you get something between edible and inedible. More on that under open-pollinated or F1.
This is also where the method runs out. Apple, pear, cherry and plum barely root as cuttings at all. For those there is grafting.
The cut: close below the node
Every set of instructions says “below the node”, and rarely says why. At the leaf node sits tissue capable of dividing, and this is where the growth substance travelling down from the leaves builds up. In willow, poplar and currant there are even finished root initials already sitting in the shoot, and you can see them as small bumps before any compost is involved. In most other species the plant forms its roots from scratch after the cut, prompted by the wound itself.
Choose a shoot and shorten it to 8 to 12 cm
Take a strong, non-flowering shoot from the outer edge of the plant; flower buds cost energy. Three to four pairs of leaves is the measure, longer means more transpiration.
Cut cleanly below the node at the base
With a sharp knife or a razor blade, not with secateurs. Secateurs crush, and crushed tissue rots.
Strip the lower leaves, halve the large ones
Anything that would sit below the surface comes off. Large leaves, on hydrangea or fig for instance, get cut across by half. It looks brutal, but it halves transpiration while there is still no root.
Insert and firm in
A third to half of its length into lean substrate, firm it in, water it in. One cutting per pot is tidier, because you tear no roots when you pot on.
The glass of water on the windowsill
The classic works, but not for everything. Soft-shooted, water-loving species make thick white roots in a glass: mint, basil, fuchsia and willow. Oleander belongs on the list too, but with a rule of its own: its cardiac glycosides pass into the standing water. Label that glass, keep it out of reach of children and pets, never stand it beside herb jars or drinking glasses, and do not tip the water over vegetables.
Woody and Mediterranean species rot in there far more often than they root. Lavender, rosemary and sage want a dry base and belong in sandy, only slightly moist substrate straight after cutting. The only ones you may let dry off are pelargoniums, whose fleshy stems store water.
Water roots are more glassy than soil roots and have to rebuild themselves after potting. So pot them on as soon as they are two to three centimetres long, and keep the plant damper than usual for a fortnight afterwards.
Softwood cuttings in summer, while the shoot still bends
From June to August · CW 23 to 35 the new shoots are half ripened: no longer sappy and soft, not yet hard and woody. Between thumb and forefinger the shoot should bend and spring back. In late July · CW 31 this window stands wide open, and for lavender, sage, thyme, fuchsias and hydrangeas this is the best moment of the year. Box is better taken a little later; semi-ripe box cuttings do best from August into September · CW 32 to 40.
Cut early in the morning, while the shoots are full of water. At 18 to 22 °C in the substrate and in humid air it takes three to six weeks. The test is a gentle pull on the shoot: if you feel resistance, there are roots down there already.
Where the roots come out
On basil (Ocimum basilicum) you can see it plainly: most roots break out at and just below the lowest node. Leave no long stub of stem underneath it, because that stub dies back and becomes the entry point for rot.
The same rule applies to woody plants. On currant or fig you place the lower cut just below a bud and the upper one a little way above one.
Hardwood cuttings in winter: the laziest method there is
Between November and February · CW 44 to CW 9, while the shrub is bare and dormant, you cut pencil-thick one-year-old shoots into pieces of 15 to 20 cm with three or four buds each. Straight across at the base and close below a bud, sloping at the top and a centimetre above the uppermost bud. That slope is the reminder: a hardwood cutting put in upside down will not break bud.
Then you push the sticks two thirds of the way into a sheltered bed or a deep pot of sandy soil, upright, with only the top bud showing. This works reliably on redcurrant, jostaberry, elder, willow and forsythia.
Three species fall outside that list, and putting them into the winter bed with the rest costs you half a batch. Gooseberry roots noticeably less well from hardwood cuttings than currant does; layering is the classic route for it. Vine wood goes into damp sand cool over winter and is only inserted in spring. And the fig does not go outside at all: unrooted fig wood either dries out or freezes in an open bed. Cut it in late winter and bring it on warm at 18 to 22 °C in a pot, more on that under propagating figs from cuttings.
The cellar trick for hardwood cuttings
If your soil stays wet for long spells in winter, tie the sticks into bundles with wire and stand them upside down in a box of damp sand. Upside down has a reason: it puts the cut surfaces in the warmer upper layer of sand, where they form callus, a whitish wound tissue, while the buds stay cool at the bottom and do not break prematurely. A few weeks at around 15 °C is enough for the callus, after which the box goes somewhere cool and frost-free. In March · CW 10 to 12 you plant the bundles out, and they root faster than freshly cut wood.
Layering: letting roots form without cutting anything off
Layering forgives the most, because the shoot stays on the mother plant and keeps being supplied. It cannot dry out at all.
From April to mid-June · CW 14 to 25 you look for a pliable shoot close to the ground and dig a trench ten centimetres deep where it touches the soil. Nick the bark lightly on the underside, which prompts root formation. Then lay the shoot in, hold it down with a bent piece of wire and tie the tip to a cane. In the autumn of that same year you dig carefully to check: if roots have formed, you sever the layer and move it the following spring. On gooseberry and hydrangea it nearly always works in the first year, while lilac and cornelian cherry often need a second season. If you are reading this in late July · CW 31, note the window down for next spring.
Blackberries layer themselves, and there is still time for that now. Between July and August · CW 27 to 35, bury the tip of a long cane a hand's width deep, and by autumn there is a rooted young plant sitting there. Raspberries throw up root suckers, strawberries send out runners with daughter rosettes. With strawberries, only take runners from healthy one- to two-year-old plants and buy in certified young plants every few years, otherwise viruses and root fungi travel down the generations with them.
If no shoot reaches the ground, you bring the ground to the shoot. This is called air layering: remove a ring of bark two centimetres wide, pack damp substrate around it, wrap film over that and tie it off. After six to twelve weeks you can see the roots through the film and saw off below them.
Root cuttings and dividing the clump
Some plants come away more reliably from the root than from the shoot: horseradish, oriental poppy, phlox. During winter dormancy you cut pencil-thick pieces of root into sections five to eight centimetres long, straight at the end that faced the plant and sloping at the end that faced the root tip. Then in they go, upright in sandy substrate, straight end up, covered by a centimetre.
With perennials you need nothing to root at all, since every division brings its own roots. For some, dividing really is maintenance: bearded iris, the large-flowered iris, wants splitting every three or four years, otherwise the clump creeps over the edge of the bed and flowers more thinly. Asters, border phlox and coneflowers go bare in the middle. Hostas and daylilies, on the other hand, you may leave in place for decades, and they only come into their own with the years; here you divide only when you want more plants. The old trick for it is two digging forks, pushed back to back into the lifted clump and levered apart. Every division needs at least three growth buds and a handful of roots. Peonies are the exception: move them in late summer only, and never set them deeper than they stood. More under dividing perennials.
A cutting needs no feeding. It needs calm, moisture and a clean cut.
An old gardener's rule
Substrate, jar, powder: what helps and what is legend
The three levers
- Lean substrate instead of good compost
Seed or potting-on compost, ideally mixed half and half with sand or fine pumice. Nutrients tempt a cutting into growing on at the top instead of rooting at the bottom, and they feed every rot organism along the way. Peat-free mixes do the job just as well.
- Jar on top, warm feet, cool head
An upturned preserving jar keeps the air saturated, and without roots that humidity is the only thing keeping the cutting alive. A bright spot, but never direct midday sun: under glass you quickly reach 45 °C. Air it briefly every day or two. Roots form at 18 to 22 °C in the substrate, and the top may be cooler than that.
- Rooting powder and willow water, honestly
Two different things sit side by side on the shelf. Hormone powders containing indole-3-butyric acid hold a synthetic auxin and count in law as plant protection products, namely growth regulators, which means they need authorisation. Many products sold as a “rooting aid”, by contrast, contain no auxin at all but mycorrhiza or nutrients. On woody plants that root badly, lilac or rhododendron for instance, an auxin powder does make a measurable difference; on mint, willow or fuchsia it is superfluous. Willow bark contains salicin, a phenolic glycoside with antimicrobial action, but it is not a rooting hormone; trials comparing willow extract do exist, and they come out contradictory, because concentration and willow species are never comparable. Willow water does no harm, but it is no substitute for a clean cut.
When a cutting turns black
A stem base gone black means rot, almost always from substrate that is too wet or too rich, or from a leaf that ended up under the surface. Pull the affected cuttings out straight away, so the neighbours in the same pot do not follow them.
Wear gloves on poisonous species
Oleander, angel's trumpet, the spurges and box all release milky sap or toxic compounds when cut. With oleander and angel's trumpet even small swallowed amounts are dangerous, and the standing water from an oleander glass is toxic too: do not tip it over vegetables, and keep the glass labelled and out of reach of children and pets. Work in gloves as a matter of course and wash knife and hands afterwards.
The milky sap of the spurges is not merely irritant, it is caustic, and gloves do not protect your eyes. Wear safety glasses while cutting, never rub your eye with a soiled hand, and do not work in full sun, because some species act phototoxically and the blisters only appear under light. If sap gets into an eye, rinse for at least fifteen minutes and then see an eye specialist.
With box there is a further risk. Only take cuttings from plants that have shown no dark leaf spots and no black streaks on the shoots for at least two years, otherwise you carry box blight into your own garden or into the garden of whoever you give the plant to. Disinfect your tools beforehand.
From a twig to a memory
The lovely thing about propagating without equipment is not the purchase you saved. It is that a plant acquires a history. The blackcurrant bush grown from a hardwood cutting out of your grandparents' garden will still be carrying the same berries in twenty years' time.
The easy thing to forget is which shoot came from where, and in which week it went in. In your garden journal at Gartenkern you record the date, the origin and the success rate. Next year you will see that the fuchsia cuttings taken in early July took better than the ones from late August, and you can set the cutting itself up as a recurring task.
Common questions about cuttings and layers
When should you take cuttings?
Softwood cuttings of herbs, perennials and ornamental shrubs are taken from June to August · CW 23 to 35, while the new shoots are half ripened and spring back when you bend them. Hardwood cuttings of deciduous shrubs are taken in winter dormancy from November to February · CW 44 to CW 9, and root cuttings likewise in winter. Layers go down from April to mid-June · CW 14 to 25, while blackberry tips are buried from July to August · CW 27 to 35.
Why do my cuttings rot in a glass of water?
Because the species is not made for it. Woody and Mediterranean plants such as lavender, rosemary, sage and thyme rot in a glass far more often than they root: they will not tolerate a permanently wet base and belong in sandy, only slightly moist substrate straight after cutting. Those thin, leafy shoots wilt within the hour, so do not leave them lying about. Letting cuttings dry off for an hour or two is a rule for pelargoniums and succulents, whose fleshy stems store water. Mint, basil, fuchsia and willow, on the other hand, root in water without trouble, as long as you change it every two or three days and keep the glass out of blazing sun.
Do I need rooting powder?
For most garden plants, no. Mint, willow, fuchsia, currant and elder root without any help at all. On woody plants that root badly, lilac or rhododendron for example, a powder containing indole-3-butyric acid lifts the success rate noticeably. Such a hormone powder counts in law as a plant protection product: check the pack for an authorisation number and for clearance for domestic and allotment gardens, because some of these preparations are licensed for professional users only. The conditions of use printed on the label are binding, the authorisation situation changes, and Austria and Switzerland keep their own lists. Dip only the bottom few millimetres and tap off the excess, since too much powder tends to inhibit rooting rather than help it.
Does a cutting stay true to variety?
Yes. A cutting is genetically identical to the mother plant, so it is a clone: fruit size, flavour, flower colour and habit stay the same, and ripening falls into the same window, shifted only by site and weather. Sowing is a different matter, since the pip of an apple or the seed of a rose never gives you that variety again. Only open-pollinated vegetables and flowers come back true.
How long does a cutting take to root?
Mint and basil show their first roots in a glass of water after seven to ten days. Summer cuttings need roughly three to six weeks in humid air at 18 to 22 °C. Hardwood cuttings from the winter break bud in spring and are rooted by summer. A layer stays put for a full growing season and is severed in the autumn of the same year; slow rooters such as lilac and cornelian cherry need a second one. The simplest test is a gentle pull on the shoot: if you feel resistance, roots have formed.
May I propagate protected varieties myself?
In the private, non-commercial sphere plant variety rights expressly exempt propagation. So you may take cuttings from your own protected berry variety for your own bed. Plant variety protection is registered with the German Bundessortenamt or with the European variety office, runs for roughly 25 to 30 years depending on the species, and prohibits commercial propagation. The ® symbol is a different matter, being a registered trade mark, and it concerns the name only: you may propagate privately, but you may not sell under the protected name. An old farmhouse variety name can be registered as a trade mark too, so a look at the label is always worth it.
May I take cuttings from other people's plants?
Only with the owner's permission. Overhanging shoots belong to the neighbour as well: Section 910 of the German Civil Code lets you remove them after giving notice, not harvest propagation material from them. In public parks and green spaces, cutting is criminal damage and breaches the local parks bylaw on top of that. Out in the countryside the German hand-bouquet rule covers only small quantities for personal use and only species that are not specially protected, and in nature reserves removal is prohibited outright. Austria and Switzerland regulate this in their own right, and the basic rule is the same everywhere: ask, do not take. Which is exactly why the twig over the fence is the nicest source there is.
Sources and further reading
- Propagating plants: the overview
- Propagating and planting soft fruit bushes
- Propagating figs from cuttings
- Dividing perennials: root division
- Saving seed: open-pollinated or F1
- Grafting fruit trees: budding and whip grafting
- Pruning lavender so it does not go woody
- Bundessortenamt, plant variety protection: scope and the private-use exemption
- BVL, authorisation of plant protection products, growth regulators
On poisonous plants, the law and plant protection products
The notes on poisonous species are no substitute for medical advice. If anything is swallowed, call the poison emergency line at once, and if sap gets into an eye, see an eye specialist after rinsing. The points on plant variety rights, trade mark law, neighbour law and plant protection law are general orientation and not legal advice; what counts are the entries held by the Bundessortenamt and the authorisation and label of the individual product. Austria and Switzerland have their own rules, and in allotment sites the site regulations apply on top. Anyone wanting to pass on or sell protected varieties should check the breeder's terms.
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