Rosebie Morton’s September Gardening Guide For 2025

Wondering how to protect your plants against the winter freeze? Rosebie Morton, founder of The Real Flower Company, shares her tips: here’s your September gardening guide.

Gardening In September: How To Make Cuttings

Flickr – h080 – CC BY-SA 2.0

Given the summer we have just had, it’s hard to imagine that the weather will change and a sudden frost might wipe out all our healthy-looking herbs and other marginally tender plants which may now be bursting out of containers looking invincible. There is nothing more frustrating than coming outside and seeing one’s beloved Lemon Verbena (Aloysia citrodora) struck down by a sudden frost. If not totally exposed it may recover, but in my experience of the pot-grown plant it never has. This is why taking cuttings at this time of the year of what is called semi ripe wood will act as an insurance policy against the winter months.

Cuttings are not difficult; you do not need a greenhouse and complicated kit. All you need is a sharp pair of secateurs, a flower pot, some peat free compost and some perlite – which is a natural product originating from volcanic rock and is very good at aiding drainage. Cuttings are best taken from a non-flowering shoot but don’t worry if you can only find flowering ones.

Using your secateurs, cut a section just above a leaf node (a join) from a stem which is not too woody or too soft, ie it has a bit of movement in the stem and has approximately two to four leaf sections on it. Remove the bottom leaves and recut just below a leaf node to leave one to two pairs of leaves on the stem. If the leaves are quite big such as scented geranium or some salvias, then cut the leaves in half which will stop the cuttings from losing moisture.

To prepare the compost, mix 50 percent perlite to compost and fill your flowerpot so that it is completely full. Tap the pot about three times which will allow the compost to settle. Insert your cuttings around the edge of the pot which is where the water naturally drains to. Depending on the size of the pot you can put several cuttings into one. Water the pot really well, ideally with a watering can with a rose on it which will avoid washing the cuttings out by using too strong a water flow – easily done! Place the pot on a warm windowsill but not in direct sunlight or in a greenhouse. If you have a simple propagator (which can literally be a seed tray with a Perspex lid on it) then use that to stop the cuttings from drying out too quickly.

Keep an eye on them and water occasionally to keep the compost moist but not saturated. The cuttings should root in approximately four to six weeks although some do take a little longer. Make sure they have good roots which you should see at the base of the pot before you transplant them into individual pots ready to plant after the last risk of frost in the spring.

Most herbs such as rosemary, lavender, sage, thyme, bay, along with many shrubs (fuchsia, hydrangeas, box, holly to name but a few) can all be very easy to propagate in this way. There is nothing more satisfying than producing your own new baby plants ready to fill your garden, making you the envy of your all friends – or indeed their best friend when you have tooMost herbs such as rosemary, lavender, sage, thyme, bay, along with many shrubs (fuchsia, hydrangeas, box, holly to name but a few) can all be very easy to propagate in this way. There is nothing more satisfying than producing your own new baby plants ready to fill your garden, making you the envy of your all friends – or indeed their best friend when you have too many plants to know what to do with.