Lavender cuttings - taking and growing

Hi. Where I have been working, we are already taking lavender cuttings and propagating them, but when can this be done in a "normal" garden?
At home, we have a small but well established lavender bush in the garden. It is not in flower yet. Can the cuttings be taken now, and grown on indoors?

Also, is it possible to take uttings of lavender when it is actually in flower, or would this disturb the parent plant?

Any suggestions for when the cuttings could be planted out - ie after last frost?

Thanks.

 

I've taken lavender cuttings successfully in late summer, when cutting lavender back after flowering. I took some of the cut pieces (not the flower stalks, the leafy bits!), dipped them in rooting gel and shoved them in a pot. Out of 4, 2 survived and bloomed the next year, but they're still very small.

 

I would take semi-ripe cuttings in early September. For flowering shoots (probably all of them for Lavender!) I would cut the flower stem off back to the last leaf, for non-flowering shoot pinch out the tip.

I would take cuttings about 4" long and strip off the leaves from the bottom 2", dip the base in semi-ripe rooting powder and they should be rooted by the Spring - then harden off and plant out.

 

Last year I bought some 126 Plug Plants @ £0.15 from van Meuwen
http://www.vanmeuwen.com/plant/61045

They were tiny, of course, and needed to be cosseted in 3" pots, then potted on, but that's not really much different to looking after, and growing on, cuttings.

Pictures in My blog

 

They're about the size of the cuttings I took.

 

OK Kristen, I've got to ask this, when you say 'semi ripe cuttings' do you mean half brown stem and half green stem and what is semi ripe rooting powder?

 

I was meaning more the time of year, rather than the woodiness. Ti.e. te "wood" is starting to stiffen up.

Hormone rooting powder comes in three types - Soft, Semi-ripe, and Hard (not sure of the exact terminology, but hopefully you get my drift). I think the proportions of hormones are different ... but I'm not sure it makes a lot of difference, lot of folklore about "Never using rooting hormone powder" and so on ... and if the pot of rooting powder is a year or more old its probably lost some/all efficacy anyway :(

 

I took cuttings last year around February, they were bendy but not just the youngest spring growth. Removed the lowermost leaves, dipped into ASDA hormone and planted into trays, covered with a plastic bag. 9 out of 10 rooted and are now quite presentable plants. Planted them out in June last year.
(The hormones were worth every 39 pennies. My husband spotted the jar, became very emphatetic and started to say softly "now that you have started with the hormones... ". I'm 37. Hmmm. )

 

Thank you for all of your suggestions. Semi-ripe cuttings are the kind we were taking at the nursery; stems woodyish but still bendable.

So basically late summer is the best time of all?

 

Lol Kristen I beg to differ my pot of rooting powder is 15+ years old and it is still 'working' in fact my last lot of cuttings were lavender taken last year and I had a great success rate.

For my lavender cuttings I just take any non flowering stem of 'new' growth and cut them down to 3" high strip the lower leaves off, dip in water and then in rooting powder, shake off the excess and then pot into some good potting compost, cover with a plastic bag and there you go an new plant started! Hel.xxx.

 

"Lol Kristen I beg to differ my pot of rooting powder is 15+ years old"

Mine too ... I reckon both of us are therefore in the "Never using rooting hormone powder" camp now then!!

 

The cuttings I have taken at a nursery were simply placed straight into cells of compost, and are all doing well without hormone powder or the like - but then again they are in greenhouses and being attended to 24/7. At home I plan to begin the cuttings fairly soon, and keep them in a conservatory, with a tub of hormone rooting powder handy just in case...

 

Helen, it isn't the rooting powder that is working, it will be the person doing it that makes the difference, because after 15 years it is definitely ineffective. You are the reason they succeed, after 15 at least years I would say you have become expert.

I dip cuttings in fungicide now after watching Geoff Hamilton do it on telly, and what's good enough for him is most likely the best method. Although I am not sure it is actually making a jot of difference.

When I run out and don't use it there doesn't seem to be much difference.

 

how far are you supposed to cut back the lavender? I put a smal bush in last year and just left it! new to all this!