h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Worth a try in the spring, although with this mild weather we're having here I might have another go now.

Are you using a fungicide at all Mina ?

It's been so mild and damp in the UK this year that short of steam sterilising your compost etc. etc. many cuttings will be doomed without it.

I find a good layer of grit on the surface of the compost helps too.

Do you get this sort of problem in deepest Ontario, John? Or is your climate dry enough to keep the fungi at bay ?

No, I hadn't used one. I was told I might need one for the seedlings I planted, but they were fine. It's not even all the cuttings, which is weird.
I wasn't expecting the weather to stay so sunny, so I left them on a south facing windowsill, which I don't suppose helped. The ones that seem to be ok are now outside in my mini greenhouse at night, and sitting in the sun in the day, cos the greenhouse gets too hot.

How much leaf did you leave on the cuttings that wilted ? That's often been my crime in the past and now I tend to cut about two-thirds off even the leaves I don't pinch out

I'd taken about a third off from the bottom, that's what my gardening books told me to do. I should have known they'd be wrong!

Yes, it's all very well if you can regulate light, temperature and humidity perfectly.

I spend quite a lot of time away and can't give that sort of attention so most of my propagation is by division or layering. Which is fine because I'm mainly interested in plants those techniques work for

I'm interested in anything I can get for free!

A couple I've done through division. Scared I would kill them, but they seem to be thriving. The ones that layering would help with I found out should have been done in the summer, so I'm too late.

What are you most interested in propagating ?

Some honeysuckle, I was trying passion flower as well, but I can't get hold of that now as it was the neighbours, and it's been cut down now. One piece of that looks hopeful, and most of the Lemon Verbena died, although I'm hopeful again on one piece of that.

Most honeysuckle's in fruit right now (it is oop North anyway). If you can beg steal or borrow some berries, the seeds germinate very easily and it grows quickly enough.

I hadn't thought of that! It's my honeysuckle, and it has berries on it! Do I bury the berry, or dig the seeds out first? And can I plant them now, or save them til spring?

*rushes outside in near dark to grab some*

For me, they just sprout where they fall, Mina. Perhaps you could pot up some clean sphagnum compost and push them just under the surface so the birds can't see them. I don't think they need much more than that

I've never noticed them drop off to be honest. I haven't got a very good crop this year as the plant didn't do very well. I think it was the clump of nettles sitting next to them all summer. I'm trying to encourage the nettles to grow somewhere else in the garden now. But I'll try that, thanks.