Gardener´s Propagation Week November 2017

Dear readers, 

I wish you a happy Gardener´s Propagation week November 2017!  This week I tried myself in taking some hardwood cuttings from my roses. So far I have only taken softwood cuttings in spring and summer. Reading that hardwood cuttings are a reliable method of propagating roses, I thought I´d give it a try this year. 

Furthermore, I am trying myself in sowing sweet peas for next year. Last year I sowed some sweet peas in March and although they developed into plants, they didn´t thrive in my garden. They looked good until about June, but then the weather became very dry and hot and they died. I was quite sad about that as I saw many beautiful sweet pea plants in England this year and I would have loved to have such beautiful sweet pea plants in my garden too. In some garden magazines I read about the possibility to sow sweet peas in October or November already. By sowing them early they are said to develop into more vigorous plants than their spring-sown counterparts and they also produce blooms earlier. Early sown sweet peas are also said to cope better with dry conditions during summer as they have enough time to develop deep roots. Thinking that this sounds really good, I have to give it  a try. 

What about you dear readers? Have you sown anything recently, taken any cuttings or divided any plants? Do you have any experiences with early sown sweet peas? As always, I´d like to encourage you to participate in Gardener´s Propagation week by publishing a post on plant propagation on your blog and sharing the link with me in the comments.

Have a great week!
Lisa

Sowing sweet peas 

I bought many sweet pea seeds during my garden vacation in England this year. I was amazed by the vast variety of sweet pea seeds offered in England. The following pictures from a flower exhibition in England give you a good idea about this great variety of sweet peas. About two weeks ago I sowed some of the seeds in a mini greenhouse and as you can see in the third and fourth picture, most of them have germinated already. It is recommended to have the sweet pea seedlings in a cold greenhouse till they can be planted in the garden in late spring. The temperatures in the greenhouse should be cold, though there should´t be any severe frost. I don´t have a green house in my garden, but I have a garden shed and I think if I cultivate the sweet peas right next to the window of the garden shed it should work too. I am just worrying about frost inside the garden shed. At the moment it is not even freezing outside, but in some months when it gets colder I am afraid that it might also freeze inside the shed. So, I will check the temperature inside and will protect the sweet peas in case it gets too cold. 

Sweet pea varieties at a plant exhibition at Wisley garden in June this year. I bought a great variety of sweet pea seeds  there.

my sweet pea seedlings

                                     

                                         Taking rose cuttings from hardwood stems

For the hardwood cuttings I cut some rose stems that could´t be bended. I removed all the leaves and put  the  cuttings directly into a garden bed. Once they have rooted, I will transplant them to another spot in my garden. If you would also like to take some hardwood cuttings from roses, there is a video by gardener´s world on how to do it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAC2BqCUWQM