Propagation paradise

A  couple of weeks ago, me and my mum got to visit some family friends, Pat and Keith, who have a simply gorgeous garden in Kidderminster, Worcestershire.

It is one of those gardens that is great for wildlife, not becausethat is its prime focus, but because it is a garden filled with wonderful plants, cottage garden style. We're talking hundreds and hundreds of plants! 

Things such as glorious old apple trees, 40 foot high and laden with fruit:

And cottage garden favourites, such as our old friend Helianthus 'Lemon Queen' with its obligatory Common Carden Bee on the lower bloom here.

And asters (some of which are now called Symphyotrichums), which are almost unbeatable for late season pollinators. I think Pat said that this one is Aster thompsonii. If you can't find this one, try Aster frikartii, which is readily available, very similar, and just as good for pollinators.

The borders were simply radiant, verdant - and at this point I should say that this was a very sunny day which is the worst for garden photography as the colours get lost in all the hard contrast and black shadows. So imagine how this must look in better lighting.

Pat has a particular fondness for salvias - the sage family - which not only look great but are almost invariably great for bees. There are so many cultivars now available, but here are just a few examples from Pat's garden.

This is one of the Salvia x jamensis or Salvia greggii groups of salvia, which include the very popular white-and-red Salvia 'Hot Lips'.

Taller salvias are increasingly popular, and this looks to me very much like Salvia 'Amistad' which flowers on and on and on...

And there are more unusual salvias to grow, such as this curious Salvia leucantha.

But what I wanted to finish on today is that it must look like this garden must cost a fortune for all these flowers.

But that's where nature is your bank balance's best friend: plants have this generosity allowing you to use one to make so many more through cuttings, for free.

And Pat might as well be called Propagation Pat because she takes cuttings by the score, and fills her garden with them, and sells them for charity, and gives them to very lucky people like me!

Here is just one of Pat's greenhouses full of cuttings, and that's not to mention the giant coldframes.

Taking cuttings is something anyone can do - it's not something only for the experts. We're just at the tail-end of the salvia cutting season (usually August-September) but it is still worth a go this weekend if you have chance and a parent plant to use. And it is so easy.

• Cut a pencil-length of non-flowering stem
• Remove the lower leaves, just leaving a few at the tip
• Cut neatly beneath a leaf node (the kobbly bit where two lower leaves were joined)
• And I could talk here about dipping it in rooting hormone powder and slipping it into a pot of gritty, free-draining compost
• But you're likely to have almost as much success by putting it in a jamjar of water.
• In a few weeks, roots will start to grow and you can pot it into peat-free compost and keep it somewhere light and frost-free over winter to establish.

If not this year, then pledge to take lots of cuttings next year. A plant-rich garden is a wildlife-rich garden, and think of all the presents you'll have to give away, prepared with love and designed to add life to this world.