Perennial Wallflower Cuttings

Hello everyone- new poster here, just learning so please be gentle...

I realise that my Wallflower 'Mavis Bowles' is on it's way out and i need to take cuttings.
How do i do this and when is the best time to do it?

PLease help,

Thanks in advance,:gnthb:

 

Hi NewDad and welcome to the forum.

A GC member Blackthorn very kindly sent me a cutting of E.'Bowles Mauve' a year ago. I have never taken any cuttings of it myself, but I had a Google and came up with this.

This site says now is the time to do it - from May to July. http://www.helium.com/items/131224-tips-for-growing-erysimum-bowles-mauve

And this site gives some instructions on taking cuttings of it. The method is same as you would use to take cuttings of most things. If you don't have a heated propagator, just stick the cutting in a pot in a polybag. Give it good light, but not direct sun. Start with moist compost, but don't water it afterwards for a couple of weeks. Remember it won't have any roots for the first two weeks, so it can use little or no water from the soil at the start, and excess wet could make it rot. http://www.growsonyou.com/question/show/7129-cutting-from-erysimum

 

I regularly take cuttings of Bowles Mauve and find it quite easy with perhaps 90% rooting in gritty compost even as late as Sept.

Mavis Bowles I don't know, does it have the same foliage as Bowles Mauve?

 

PeterS- How come when i do the same google search,i don't get sites anywhere as usefull? The internet must hate me- there is no other explanation

Thanks very much. Will have a go at taking cutting of these and dianthus, this weekend.

Lovage- not sure . Thought they were the same thing.

 

NewDad - just luck or perhaps a bit of persistance. :D

When I started gardening, I liked to look things up on the internet. But I found it very confusing. So many sites said conflicting things. So I got into the habit of looking at 20 sites or more and then taking a mental average. I still find you get a lot of confliction advice, and I really, really hate those sites that quote your search criteria and then don't offer anything at all or say you have to pay to go any further.

One possible tip is to enter the search criteria in Google, then click on more (in the top menu) and groups and search groups. This then shows forums like this, rather than commercial sites. Sites where people are discussing the problem are often more useful than ones trying to sell you something.

 

Don't be disheartened NewDad - when 'googling', I find it frequently helps if you think 'corkscrew' fashion as opposed to laterally. The use of the "+" key in your search criteria also helps a lot, as does putting something in quote marks (these last two suggestions come courtesy of my 12 year old god-daughter who's forgotten more about computers than I'll ever learn!).

 

Well i've taken cutting now about a week ago. 3 in total and they are on my kitchen window sill awaiting to be revieled. Hope they are successfull though, asi seemed to have promised plants to about 9 different people!

At least time is on my side. Also got hold of some Welsh Poppy seeds and am going to give them a go.

After nearly a year of planning,my garden is starting to head in a direction i want. The plants are still small and new, but when i see other peoples good gardens, i think that given time i'm not too far away.

I suppose it's like a proud parent, always thinking that their kid will turn out to be the best

 

I bought this wallflower a couple of months ago and potted it up into a container, sitting in full sun against a warm brick wall. I am a total novice, but I really did hope it would do well under these conditions.

I don't know what I've done wrong, but I've been very disappointed with its show. Very leggy, and very little in the way of flowers. I cut the worst of the legginess back a couple of weeks ago, but nothing much new seems to be happening.

It was potted up into good quality compost, so I didn't think it would need feeding.
Should I be feeding it?

How much water does it need?

 

Just a quick update

OK a month has roughly passed and i have transfered my cuttings into a bigger pot.
Of the three i took, 2 rooted and bizzarely one flowered but didn't root.:dh:

To be honest the failure is probably my fault as i over watered them, didn't use gritty compost and left then in strong sunlight for the first week until i re-read the posts on this forum.

A few quick questions

1) The cuttings which rooted had very small single roots about 1cm long. Will this be enough for the plant to survive?

2) i have placed the new plants :D, in doors in a warm window still with good sunlight and not in my cheap plastic greenhouse. Is this ok? I know that eventually i will have to harden them off- when do i start to do that?

3) How big does it have to be so i can plant them- is there a good time to plant them?

Thanks again

 

Hi NewDad - congratulations on having reared two more members of your family. :D

1) The cutting with a small root is obviously on its way. But with a root that small I would tend to continue to treat it as a cutting - rather than as a robust plant. I still wouldn't let it get strong sun, which could take moisture out of the plant faster than the tiny root could replace it.

2) Once it has got a reasonably amount of root, I don't think you have to worry at this time of year about hardening off. The nights are quite warm - 12C+, as compared with earlier in the year when it might fall to 2C at night.

3) If its well rooted and in a pot, it doesn't really matter when you plant it as you won't be disturbing the roots. I think the main criteria will be to get those roots. If its got some root now it should be big enough to handle the winter when it comes. But if you are in any doubt, you could always give it some protection in your plastic greenhouse.

 

Just a suggestion NewDad, (and forgive me if I'm stating the bleedin' obvious) but when you take cuttings I know it can be very tempting to see how they're getting on, but through bitter experience, I've learnt that the best thing to do is to leave them in their original pot until you can just see tiny white roots visible when you hold the pot up and look underneath.

 

Fidgetsmum- i am more than happy for you to state the bleeding obvious, as you have to remember, it's not the bleeding obvious when you've not done it before!

I didn't know you had to wait for the roots to show out the pot, as i just left it a month, presuming that was the rule- i didn't know i had to look for something.

Peter S- should i recover them with the polythene bag again then?

 

Yes NewDad - I would recover them with a polythene bag again. Your cuttings aren't really rooted yet - so they are still cuttings. However I would make some holes in the bag, to allow them to breathe a bit. And as time goes by you could make the holes bigger.

When I took cuttings last year, I put them into clear plastic pic-nic tumblers (having put drainage holes in the bottom). That way you can see when the roots reach the side without having to remove them from the pot. Its not 100% efficient, but on balance I am inclined to do all my future cuttings that way.

I would agree with Fidgetsmum about waiting till you see some roots. But I must admit at times I shake the soil off gently - just to see what stage they are at, and then repot them. Cuttings can take different lengths of time to grow roots, depending on the plant, type of cutting and time of year etc. Some Salvia cuttings. I take. can get massive root balls after only 10 days but, I understand, that some hardwood cuttings can take the best part of a year.

 

I was given a purple wallflower two years ago and planted it in a rocky corner which has very little soil and mostly gravel. It grew quite big very quickly and has been flowering ever since - tons of blooms. The butterflies love it. Have just taken cuttings and found this site when I googled "how to grow wallflower cuttings" !The person who gave me the plant planted one for herself in good soli and it has done very badly. Maybe they don't like rich soil ?

 

Maybe they don't like rich soil ?
Well observed Dorothy. That's precisely it. Once they've become a plant, they like solid,firm planting in loamy,not too rich soil and very little TLC. Good drainage in the sun and they will be very happy.
Jenny namaste