It’s not that I’m obsessed, controlling or critical (that’s a different conversation held when I’m not around), it’s simply that I love my plants. If someone expresses an interest that goes beyond "Hey that’s pretty." I jump on it, usually offer a cutting or piece, and often follow up later to see how it’s doing.

This is of course awkward for those who find themselves in way over their heads. Perhaps they never wanted to learn how to root edgeworthia from late February cuttings but didn’t know how to say no when I put down my beverage and pulled out the pruners. But, it also means that if you are a little shy in asking, I more often than not, will foist.

Consequently, when I am walking around gardens far, far better than my own, and find myself desperately wanting a cutting or a piece of something, I’m aware that the gardener giving it to me (with better plants, better skills and possibly a better greenhouse), is very likely to remember the transaction next time we meet.

The pressure is intense.

If you’ve ever been the recipient of a precious plant or cutting, you most probably know what I’m talking about. Some of these plants we truly want to grow; but we may find ourselves distracted or forgetful during the propagation process, or we might not have the right place prepared.

However, asking for another one because you couldn’t be bothered to walk out to the potting shed for rooting hormone is not an easy question to phrase.

That’s why I like to keep three things going during the growing season:

• A ready-to-go Forsythe pot for cuttings;

• A collection of cloches shaded under shrubs; and,

• A concentrated nursery area near the hosepipe for small potted seedlings.

A Forsythe pot is a pot within a pot. The inner pot is terracotta and is filled with water (no drainage hole). It continuously wicks that water into a ring of vermiculite/perlite/damp sand between it and the larger pot. This moist medium is where you stick those cuttings immediately upon getting home with them (often with a light dip of rooting hormone depending on the cutting).

For the added humidity often necessary for woody cuttings, I put a plastic bag over the top, held off the cuttings by means of kebab skewers. For smaller cuttings, a thrift store cake stand cover works beautifully too.

Once they are reliably rooted, a nursery area specifically for smaller pots allows them time and care to fill that pot with roots and get big enough to handle rougher treatment, planting out, or sometimes, a winter season. Keeping that area near a hosepipe means that it is easy to water for me and for anyone else I may have to rely on in times of travel or sickness.

Though I like to tease about this process and the pressure to perform, one can achieve a great deal of satisfaction by making baby plants. Or baby anything for that matter. A book I refer to time and time again is Lewis Hill’s Secrets of Plant Propagation (Storey Press, 1985). I’m on my second copy. It is an older book, but straightforward and to the point. Some plants are ridiculously easy to root, such as red-twigged dogwood that roots from whips cut in February by simply pushing them into the ground. Some are harder, like that edgeworthia I mentioned earlier, which likes a continual misting and stories read to it at bedtime.

There are good times of the year to take cuttings and bad times, and they vary depending on the plant. I like to look at those as best practice guidelines – fabulous if you can follow them (and SO much easier) – but if you’ve only got one chance at getting your greedy hands on a cutting, you gotta take it when you can.

Right now, I’m focused on six cuttings of rare Aucuba japonica cultivars I received from friends with a world-class garden in the Norfolk area. I started by lazily rooting them in water, which usually works, and didn’t, and moved on to the Forsythe pot before they became too desiccated and worthless. Even with a skimpy 50% survival rate, I may come out smiling.

Fingers crossed. I really don’t want to ask for them twice.