The Cut Flower Podcast

The Power of Propagation with Roz

• Roz Chandler • Season 1 • Episode 134

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0:00 | 11:59

Text Agony Aunt Roz with your Cutflower Questions.

In this episode of the Cut Flower Podcast, Roz introduces the concept of propagation, emphasising its importance for flower farmers and gardeners. She discusses the two main types of propagation: sexual and asexual, and shares personal anecdotes to illustrate the benefits of propagating plants. Roz encourages listeners to adopt a year-round approach to propagation and provides practical tips for success, including the importance of labeling and mastering one method at a time. The episode concludes with a call to action for listeners to research and plan their propagation efforts.

  • Propagation is a way to create more plants for free.
  • There are two main types of propagation: sexual and asexual.
  • Propagation allows you to control your plant supply.
  • It can save you money in the long run.
  • Sustainability is a key benefit of propagation.
  • Propagation should be done year-round, not just in spring.
  • Labeling plants is crucial for successful propagation.
  • Start with one method and master it before expanding.
  • Propagation can diversify your income as a flower farmer.
  • Every plant you propagate contributes to your legacy.

Join the Roots to Shoots masterclasses here 


Roz (00:00)
Hello my lovely flowery friends and welcome back to the Cut Flower Podcast. I'm Roz your friendly flower farmer, tea drinker, must be earl grey and occasional plant whisperer. Although between us plants don't always listen and they're certainly not listening in the UK at the moment when we're going through extreme heat and a bit of a drought and I keep doing a rain dance but it's kind of not happening. But today we're kicking off a new mini-series all about propagation.

and I have to tell you this is my absolute favourite topic. I get positively excited about it, I love doing it and I love making lots of savings. It's like having a superpower in your back pocket or perhaps more accurately in your potting shed. It's how you take one plant and with a little bit of knowledge, patience, lots of patience and maybe a dash of daring just going for it, you can turn it into dozens and sometimes hundreds of plants.

Now before you think I'm going to get mine to my botanical books and pull them off the shelves, I'm definitely not. I know I have a degree in environmental science, but I'm really not going to bore you with all that. This is going to be fun, practical, and I promise to share all the mistakes I've made along the way. And there have been many, so you can avoid them and keep your sanity intact and make lots of savings in your propagation.

So let's start with two basics that you do need out of a textbook. What is propagation? Well, it's just a fancy word for making more plants. More plants for free is even better. And there are two main ways to do it. The first one is sexual propagation. And yes, it makes me smirk a little when I say it. This is growing plants from seeds. Each seed contains a generic mix from its parents.

so you often get some lovely surprises. Sometimes that's a good surprise like a cosmos that blooms in an unusual shade and sometimes it's well just say I've grown a few lopsided dahlias in my time. Asexual propagation which is best basically cloning. You take part of an existing plant whether that's a stem, a leaf or a chunk of a root and you encourage it to grow into an identical plant.

it's how you keep those star performance exactly as they are year after year. So two types of propagation, sexual propagation, which is seed propagation and asexual propagation, which is when you take cuttings and you're basically cloning the plant. So why is propagation a game changer for everybody? It's justice and a nice skill to have. It's a cornerstone of resilience for any grower. Let me tell you a little story.

A few years ago I fell in love with a particular variety of penstemon. It had the most gorgeous dusky mow flowers. Honestly it looks like something from a Victorian watercolour painting. I brought six plants and dotted them through the borders. Dreaming of the day they'd fill up with the rose. Then the following spring I went to buy some more and they were completely unavailable. Not at my local nursery, not online, not even from my usual wholesale suppliers.

Now if I had been relying on buying in stock each year they would have been it dream over but luckily I'd taken cuttings the year before so instead of losing them I had 24 strong healthy plants ready to go so actually what I'm trying to say is that you are in control if you are doing propagation that's the magic of it you're not at the mercy of all the supply chains you know the seed catalogs or let's be honest the ever-changing whims of plant fashion which changes very rapidly

There's also the small matter of cost. Buying hundreds of plants each season is expensive and if you're just starting out trying to scale your flower farm these costs can make your eyes water. Propagation lets you turn one three pound plant into a thirty pound worth of or three hundred pounds worth if you keep multiplying it over a few seasons. It's like compound interest which I love but it's for plants.

If you think of a, let's say a David Austin rose in the United Kingdom, we would be paying roughly about 25 pounds for it, let's say. And then you could take six rose cuttings from those each year. And those six rose cuttings, if you think about it, if that's six times, let's do it 30 pounds including postage, six threes or 180 pounds from six cuttings is what you've saved. So you really, really must have a go at this.

The sustainability factor, and let's not forget about this, propagating from your own stock reduces the environmental footprint of your business. You're not paying for plants to be grown, transported, packaged, ditched and shipped. And if you're growing organically or with minimum chemicals like we do, you can be confident your propagated plants have had a chemical free start to their life. So here's the thing, we need to shift our mindset and think like a multiplier.

We can do this. Most new growers see propagation as a springtime job, something you do when the seed packets come out and the greenhouse starts to smell of that damp compost. But I want you to shift your mindset. Propagation can and should be happening all year round. Seeds in spring, softwood cuttings in summer, division in autumn, hardwood cuttings in winter. There's always something that you can be multiplying. Now we run an annual course.

and we launch it in the autumn called Roots to Shoots. It's a new course this year. It's an upgraded course from something we ran before called A Cut Above. And this is a much more in-depth course now called Roots to Shoots. And we're filming it all as we filmed it all and we're filming more as we go along and should be ready by the end of September. If you're interested in that course and want to join us and learn everything about propagation, then pop along to the Cut Flower Collective website.

⁓ It's cutflowercollective.co.uk and join the waitlist and we'll let you know as soon as we've launched the course, but it's called Roots to Shoots. So you have got to change your mind share and know that it's all year round. Now, before we get too excited, let me share some important lessons. Label everything, and I mean everything. There is something every year that we haven't labelled properly and we get to it and we look at it and think, what is this plant?

And I run a number of different online memberships and courses. And the most frequent thing on the sites is a picture of a seedling with someone saying, well, what is this? And it's because either they were labeled and the actual label pen has come off or they didn't label it in the first place. And honestly, something we all do. So I'm not holding anybody guilty for that. We call it the greenhouse mystery here or the lost plant area.

and it's the unlabeled, unidentified and it's where all the plants end up and we just have to wish and hope. We don't know where to plant them because we don't know where they are necessary. So get yourself a pack of plant labels and a permanent marker and keep them in your pocket all the time. Really, honestly, it is something that we all forget to do. If you're new to propagation, here's a quick wind tip. Just take one method, maybe seed starting, maybe softwood cuttings and master it this season. You don't need to do everything at once.

Confidence comes from success, not by drowning and lots and lots of different ways. And then perhaps break your year into four and say, I'm going to do my hardwood cuttings here and make a list of what you're going to do. I'm going to do my seeds here and then work out what seeds you're saving. I'm going to do my softwood cuttings here. And then you can progress. You know, there's lots of other ways of propagation. It's a lifetime skill, we call it. And this is where if you're running a business, it ties into your business.

Propagation isn't just about growing flowers for your own beds, it can be an income stream of course. Selling young plants if you want to at farmers markets as part of a plant subscription service or on open days can be a great way to diversify your income. People love buying plants and you know and they love it with a story and you can tell them exactly where the cutting came from, how you grew it, why it's so special to you and that is another income into your business.

So here's your gentle homework for the week. Pick one plant in your garden or on your farm that you'd love to have more of. Then research the best way to propagate it. There's number of different ways you can propagate any one plant, for instance, but research the best ways or the different ways. Is it a seed grower? Does it do well from cuttings? Could you divide it? Then make a plan to do it with the right timings, obviously, for that cutting.

So next week we're going to be diving deep into seed propagation from packets to plants we call it, including all the little secrets that make the difference between strong sturdy seedlings and sad leggy ones that collapse before they make it to the field. And if you're listening and thinking, Roz I love this stuff, but I need someone to hold my accountable and guide me through building my business step by step. That's exactly what I'm here for. So we've already mentioned that we're running a roots to shoots propagation course.

All our other courses are on thecutflowercollective.co.uk. We've got three coming up this autumn, so do have a look. Until then, happy growing, happy multiplying. I'd love to know your successes. And remember, every plant you propagate is a little piece of legacy. And if you want more, we're moving on next week to episode two, all about seed propagation. See you there.