{"id":3220,"date":"2015-08-26T20:23:00","date_gmt":"2015-08-27T00:23:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-08-13T17:38:48","modified_gmt":"2020-08-13T21:38:48","slug":"garden-cuttings-for-winter-windowsills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardern.co.za\/2015\/08\/garden-cuttings-for-winter-windowsills\/","title":{"rendered":"GARDEN CUTTINGS FOR WINTER WINDOWSILLS"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n\n
\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
Late summer is the best time to take cuttings from your favorite herbs, annuals and tender garden plants to bring indoors.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\nRooting your own plants is simply practical, and foundational horticulture. In late summer, it’s the perfect time to think about taking some cuttings from your herb garden or border, for indoor plants. Starting them now, will allow them to get a head start and acclimate themselves indoors before the heat comes on (believe me, it won’t be long!).<\/p>\n
Today, In a time when old-timey tasks are becoming main-stream and hip- you know, like sharing starter sourdough yeasts, encouraging natural cultures in pickles, yogurt and Kimchi, or saving heirloom seeds which is nearly as popular today as beards are – maybe it’s time to get back into the habit of propagating ones own tender plants instead of buying them every spring? OK, I’ll admit it first – I’m just as guilty of taking the easy-route – buying new abutilons, brugmansias and salvias at the garden center each and every spring spring. Coleus, fuchsia, cuphea – at a couple of dollars each, where is the harm in letting them freeze?<\/p>\n
Last year my fuchsia collection produced loads of cuttings, which allowed me to carry on many of my favorites throughout the winter.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\nMaybe it was because plants were less disposable back in then? In the twentieth century, and certainly before that, one kept heirloom plants and handed them down if they were houseplants. Garden plants had to be propagated if one wanted to keep tender annual or tropical plants, since they were extremely scarce, often traveling to North America by ship, or simple just never propagated by the few greenhouses who grew and sold plants.<\/p>\n
\n\n
\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
There is one trick which does seem to work well with pelargoniums or geraniums. That is to snap off any flowering buds in late summer once you see them, and keep the plants pinched to encourage branching. By the time winter rolls around, your plant will be so anxious to bloom, that you won’t be able to stop it.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\nI should add that not all garden plants are easy to winter over. Most annuals, even those written about in nineteenth century gardening books which certainly do well under glass in cold greenhouses such as antirrhinum (snapdragons), marigolds and fuchsias will just sulk and be insect traps if grown indoors under modern conditions. My mom was famous for keeping rooted cuttings of impatiens and wax begonias indoors every winter, I think they were more about feeding whiteflies, aphids and spidermites.<\/p>\n
\n\n
\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
There is nothing like a lemon-scented geranium when it is also in full bloom, in March.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
CAUTION: \nIt is your responsibility to check if the plant you are propagating is labeled as ‘PPAF’, or if it has a \u00ae. \nContrary to popular belief, taking cuttings from any plant labeled as ‘PPAF’ or if is is registered is illegal, even if you are a home gardener (PPAF stands for ‘Plant Patent Applied For’). I know this seems silly but look at it from the plant breeders perspective. Plant breeders are essentially inventors, and many dedicate their entire lives to breeding new, and better plants. I have a good friend who is an independent plant breeder (believe me, I don’t know of any who are rich, if anything, it’s the contrary). He explained to me that registering a plant to be ‘PPAF’ costs him aroung $1200 per plant, and he only gets to see a few dollars of that coming back when nursery sells his plant. So, as an inventor myself, I get it.<\/p>\n
Surely we will all still snip a cutting or two, probably without even knowing it – but I try to follow the law as best I can. For this reason, I won’t take a cutting of a my Brugmansia ‘Snow Bank’, since Terra Nova nurseries owns the rights to propagate it. I have thought about writing them to see if I could take one cutting, since the plant I received seems to have some problems, as if it was micro-propagated and it is almost cresting with small shoots. I would love to know if I could take one cutting from the base of the plant, and destroy to mother plant. But I imagine that such questions to Terra Nova would be silly, and yes – I could just take a cutting an no one would know the better. But I would love to know what they would say to me if I followed the proper protocol? Laugh if you will, but the US patent law is law. Besides, I just wouldn’t feel ‘right’. This may be my ‘squidgy reasoning’, I know, but in the end, it is up to us plant folk to enforce these rules. You can identify trademarked cultivars as they will have a ™ or a circle R \u00ae, or have a ‘PPAF’ number. <\/p>\n
We should all work together to support plant breeders so that they can to continue to breed stronger, better and more resistant plants that are interesting (think:Proven Winners, Terra Nova, etc). I’m not getting all righteous on you, but really – plant breeding is invention, and invention is a business and an art which we all should respect. <\/p>\n