10 plants (& more) you can propagate from cuttings now.

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]I'm going to show you 10 plants I'm propagating from cuttings now. And here are two more that I propagated just a few weeks ago in May. And as you can see, they are already developing roots.

[00:00:11]The first one is penstemon, which I propagated about 3 weeks ago, and I actually have a full demonstration video on how to propagate penstemon, which I will link in the description below. And the second one is nepeta, which is just so easy. I mean, I only propagated this 2 weeks ago, and although it only has my primary roots, you can see it's doing fine, and it is definitely growing roots. So, I would say that's going to be They're going to be successful. The plants I'm going to show you in this video are the ones I'm doing now. So, the list is not exhaustive. I would encourage you to experiment with many of the favorite plants you have in your own garden. I have a full list on a playlist on how to propagate plants. Those videos are more demonstration videos, specifically hydrangeas, clematis, roses, etc. So, go and check out that playlist, which I will also link in the description below. There are some general rules for successful propagating from cuttings. I'll run through them quickly. Make sure your plant's well hydrated before you take your cuttings.

[00:01:12]Take from the strongest growth. Often it's often a leader stem. You'll see that it will stand out from the others.

[00:01:18]You need a non-flowering stem. You don't want the plant to put energy into growing the flower. You want the plant to put energy into growing the roots.

[00:01:27]Always plunge your cutting straight into water after you've taken them until you're ready to pot them up. You need a propagator of some kind, but don't worry, it doesn't have to be expensive.

[00:01:36]It can be a water bottle, a plastic bag, anything that you can enclose around the plant to keep the humidity in there. And don't forget to experiment and have fun.

[00:01:45]So, without further ado, let's get into it. Number one, lavender. Lavender is really easy to grow from seed, but it's also super easy to grow from cuttings.

[00:01:54]I'll I'll an extra one in as well. If you want to do lavender, you can also do rosemary in this exact same way. You need a non-flowering tip. It needs to be a tip with this one.

[00:02:05]Sometimes you can take cuttings along a stem, several cuttings, but with this one it needs to be a tip. And you strip off the bottom leaves and then make sure you have at least one node in your prepared compost cuz this is where the roots are going to come from. You can usually put like five I mean in a water bottle like mine, I will put five stems in one bottle. Okay, number two, clematis. I have a full demonstration video on this, so I'm not going to go through it all again. But again, this is such an easy one to do now and it just means you can have loads of your own clematis growing all over your garden in abundance. You don't need a growing tip for this one. You can just do it from sort of stem cutting, so you can take one long stem and then take different cuttings all the way down. As I say, I've done a demonstration if you want to see how to do that. I'll link it in the description below. Number three is viburnum. Now, I wanted to do this viburnum opulus. I want to put some in my front garden to harvest the cut flowers in spring. And they're quite expensive to buy, so I thought I'll have a go at doing them from cuttings. So again, I'm going to take from a non-flowering stem. I have some flowering stems that have gone over, but I'm going to take the fresh growth that didn't have any flowers on it.

[00:03:18]And then I'm going to strip the lower leaves, make sure I have at least one node on the bottom, and then I will put it in prepared compost. Number four, buddleia. Buddleia self-seeds all over the place, but if you want to make sure that you have a buddleia that's identical to the parent plant, you really need to do it from a cutting.

[00:03:36]Now, I have this beautiful buddleia called moonlight and it I love the balls the little yellow balls on it. So I want to make sure that I get an identical plant. So I'm going to take some now from a fresh growing tip with no flower as you can see here, and then prepare it as before. Pinch off the lower leaves and have at least one node. Two, three is even better, but one node is fine, into prepared compost. Number six is Choisya. I mean, Choisya, it's not the most beautiful plant in the world, but it is a good stock plant to have around your borders. It's also evergreen, so that obviously is a plus, and it's really easy to propagate from cuttings.

[00:04:20]So, again, I'm going to take out a vibrant, healthy tip. This is a what this because this is in a pot, I did water this substantially before the day before I've taken these cuttings so that it's well hydrated, and then I'm going to put one cutting in each bottle because this one is a little bit bigger and it needs room to grow, and I don't want the leaves to be crammed and rotting. So, I'm just going to do one.

[00:04:45]Prepare it as before, strip off the lower leaves, and obviously have one node at least in the compost. Number seven is grapevine. So, I'm going to try these. I did these from the hardwood cuttings and they took ages, so I'm going to try these from softwood cuttings in spring. You don't want to obviously I do want an identical plant to the parent plant because of the the grapes are just delicious. They're super sweet and the the plant produces abundantly in my garden. So, I want to make sure I have a backup in case anything goes wrong with this one. You don't obviously want material with grapes on it, so I'm going to cut the stem back to where the next bunch of grapes is growing. You can do a tip and you can do sections with grape cuttings.

[00:05:28]I'm going to stick to the tips because I've just got tips growing and tips tend to be the easiest way to grow them as long as they're not too soft. So, if your tip is too soft and it can't stand up on its own, then it's too soft really to propagate. So, make sure it has a bit of firmness to it. Number eight is carnations. I've actually never ever uh propagated these before, but I believe they're very easy. So, I'm going to give them a go. You need a 10-cm cutting from the base, no flower, preferably not even a bud. You don't want the plant to be putting energy into turning that bud into a flower. So, you want a stem with a tip, but no flower. So, you're going to have to go down to the base of the plant. You want it to be about 10 cm.

[00:06:10]You want two, three, or four nodes if possible, so a nice long node. You don't know which node the roots are going to come from, so you want as many nodes as possible in the soil. Strip off the lower leaves, and they go. See how you go. Number nine, pyracantha. Pyracantha, again, not the most beautiful plant, but a great stock or hedging plant that the actually the birds love because of the berries on it. And actually the the bit the pollinators love the flowers as well. This propagates so easy. I actually propagated this by accident.

[00:06:41]That's how easy it is. I took some cuttings when I was cutting the hedge back. I threw them in a bucket, thought, "Shall I propagate some of those later?"

[00:06:49]So, I threw some of the tips in a bucket, ran out of time, did not propagate them. Blow me down, they went and propagated in the bucket of water anyway, with complete neglect from me.

[00:07:00]So, I figure if they're that easy to grow from cuttings when I'm cutting back the hedge, then I'm going to have a go growing them in a more uh sterile environment in my greenhouse, and see how we get on. And it'll be interesting to see how that compares with the the cuttings that I threw in a bucket of water. It'd be interesting to see the results actually between the two. Number 10 is convolvulus, and I wanted to do this one because I like the foliage. So, I bought this plant for the silver foliage, cuz I thought it would look really good in bouquets. I'm actually a little bit concerned it's a bit too short, but this is quite a new plant, so it's got a bit of growing to do. Uh and I'm going to propagate it because one plant, even if it works out as foliage for a bouquet, one plant isn't going to be enough. So, I'm going to propagate more of it. And again, I'm going to do this the same way as I did the lavender.

[00:07:48]I'm going to take non-flowering growing tips, strip off the lower leaves, put them in the prepared compost, and then cover them over and see how you go. And so, that is it. But not really, because there's a myriad of plants you can have a go at propagating. Now is a really good time to propagate many, many, many plants in the garden. So, experiment and have fun. Just before you go, don't forget to seal your propagator to maximize the humidity and bottom water.

[00:08:18]Then, wait. Don't be tempted to pull them out for at least 3 to 4 weeks, and preferably longer, but do regularly check them to make sure they haven't dried out, which, if your propagator setup is correct, they should not do. I will be doing lots more videos on plant propagation, so don't forget to subscribe, like, and share [snorts] with your friends or anyone else who you think might be interested in this fun project. And last of all, have fun.

[00:08:46]Thanks for watching. See you again in my next video. Bye.