Hardwood cuttings made easy

Making free plants doesn't get any simpler than with hardwood cuttings, and now is the perfect time to give it a go. Alan Titchmarsh shows you how

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"Raising your own plants is always a good way of saving money, especially if no specialist equipment is needed"

I really can’t understand why more gardeners do not propagate shrubs and soft fruit bushes by hardwood cuttings. I mean, in the words of the late, great Andy Williams, ‘It’s so easy.’

So, what are they? How do you prepare them? And when? Simply, hardwood cuttings are exactly as their description implies: cuttings consisting of mature shoots which have hardened and become woody – as opposed to softwood cuttings (taken from tender shoot tips) and semi-ripe cuttings (taken in summer when the shoots are firm but not woody).

It follows that the time to take hardwood cuttings is late in the season – from late autumn to late winter, when lignification (the technical term for the hardening of plant tissue) has taken place. The great advantage of hardwood cuttings is that they need no protection during the rooting period. You won’t need a propagating frame, a greenhouse or even a cold frame. Hardwood cuttings are rooted outdoors in a patch of bare earth, and that makes them the easiest of cuttings to accommodate.

Snip and save

The other obvious advantage, which applies whatever kind of cutting you are taking, is that of economy. Raising your own plants is always a good way of saving money, especially if no specialist equipment is needed. Added to this, you can raise large numbers of plants – for hedging, for instance – which would otherwise make a sizeable dent in your bank balance.

The plants you raise will be identical to their parent – there will be no variation, which is sometimes the case when plants are raised from seed – and provided the conditions you give them are favourable, success is highly likely.