Topic: Root Cuttings

[Garden Manager]

This is a technique that i have often read about and seen on TV and always wanted to try out, but never before have it got around to it or had the suitable materal to propagate from, until now. I was recently given some roots of Acanthus, a plant i have often admired but have never grown. I have just spent a showery hour in my greenhouse preparing and planting the cuttings acording to Carol Klein's advice in a book i have of hers.

I filled a deep celled module tray with a gritty compost mix, then prepared the cuttings (1.5 inches long roughly) and pushed or dibbed them into the compost so that only the top of the cutting was showing. i then watered and topped each cell with grit. Not sure what to do with them next though. I have for now placed them on the staging of my unheated greenhouse with a propagator lid over them but i was wondering if i need to bring them indoor or give them any heat, or whether they will be fine where they are and not be too cold or rot off. Also how long do i need to wait to see results (or evidence of failure)?

Any advice would be welcome. Thanks

PS. I was also wondering how many of you had tried root cuttings, what plats you tried and what kind of sucess you had. Look forward to replies!

[the_snail]

I would normally do root cuttings in the spring. Dig the plants up whilst they are still dormant in say Feb/Mar then take the root cuttings then. If you have done them now then a unheated greenhouse should be ok.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I've done it many times with couch grass, ground elder and bindweed. Couldn't be easier!

[brown thumb]

 ;D ::) :-X

[Russell]

About 18 months ago I rescued some acanthus plants from a building site and hastily shoved them into a spare bit of my veggie plot. It was really too late to move them but I kept them going with a bit of TLC from the watering can so by this spring they were OK to plant out in my border and I could use that bit of veggie plot for carrots.
They settled in to my border really well, have flowered all summer and are still going now.
Meanwhile back in the carrot patch the biggest acanthus plant of all has taken over. When I dig it up in a month or so, this time round I will be quite quite sure that no fragment however small is left behind.
That was a complicated way of saying that root cuttings of acanthus are, I think, pretty easy.

[GrannieAnnie]

I've done it many times with couch grass, ground elder and bindweed. Couldn't be easier!

:D :D ditto

I did root cuttings of a big poppy once and just inserted the pieces back in the regular soil and they took nicely.

[lavenderlux]

For the last three years I've dug up a row of oriental poppies plants and passed them onto new owners;  however, a few pieces of root get left behind, these re-grow and thus there's a continuing supply - so root cuttings of 'Papaver orientale' are very easy!

[goodlife]

Yep..I've done oriental poppies too...and comfrey and b***dy horse radish.. >:( ::) It grows quite happily everywhere without propagation.. ::)

[Garden Manager]

I've done it many times with couch grass, ground elder and bindweed. Couldn't be easier!

Thinking about it i must have done it a few times unintentionaly with oriental poppies and japanese anemones. Like i said in my OP, not had the chance to do it properly as up until now i havent wanted more of the plants i had that i could use the technique on! If that makes sense?

I have some poppies in one of my borders that are getting too big and i want to replace them with peonies. I am though worried that if i dont remove the poppies well enough they will infest and smother the peonies. I spent ages once digging out poppy roots to plant a rose. Some of the poppy still came back although thankfully not in the middle of the rose!

Going back to the acanthus i was given, some of the roots were attatched to crowns still, so once i had harvested the roots for cuttings i popped the crowns, still with some roots on them into pots. I am guessing that although this isnt a recomended proceedure, they pobably will still grow?

Thanks for replies. Looks like i might have to start an acanthus nursery (along side the hellebore one, but thats a different story!).

[manicscousers]

I've done sweet cicely successfully in the past. I've now done liquorice, monarda, sweet cicely again and, of course, mints

[Garden Manager]

Thanks for replies. i see you can also do things like Echinacea and Echinops, both of which i have and wouldnt mind more of.

Now i have 'practised' on the acanthus, theres no holding back now!!!

[the_snail]

I've done it many times with couch grass, ground elder and bindweed. Couldn't be easier!

When I was young (like 7 years old) I thought to myself what a loverly white flower. I tried to propagate the plant using rooting hormone and potting compost. Guess what that plant was Bindweed!!  :-X :-X It did root but it dried out in the pot as I forgot to water it  ::) ;D

[manicscousers]

So excited, the liquorice roots have started to grow  ;D

[artichoke]

Scorzonera: I have dug deeply to get out long black roots, eaten them, but saved the top 2 inches with leaves to put back. Hoping to establish a perennial patch big enough, over the coming years, for occasional plundering when I feel like it.

I have noticed that it is not worth digging them until they have flowered at least once and preferably twice, to get the length.