How to multiply heather?
To take cuttings from a plant, you need to choose a heather healthy and vigorous. This means that she should not present no trace of disease or pests.
The best period for this operation is the whole early spring and preferably the morning.
- With a perfectly sharp pruner, cut a small secondary branch that shows a new growth.
- You must then prune this taken cutting so as to keep only 1 or 2 centimeters of old wood at the base of the twig.
- If the stem has flowers or leaves, you need to remove them as well.
- In a pot or crate, mix peat with river sand to make a well-draining mixture. If the soil is not draining enough, your cutting may rot.
- Using a pencil, make a hole in which you will insert the rod 5 cm deep.
- Once your cutting is in place, lightly tamp the soil all around the stem.
- Using a spray bottle, completely moisten the soil.
- Place your cuttings under a frame in the garden or, if you have made several, cover the box in which you put them with a sheet of glass. Make sure your cuttings get plenty of light.
Make sure you keep the soil always moist and watch for signs of re-vegetation. As soon as you see any, it means that your growing heather has successfully produced roots. You can then install it in the ground or in a pot according to your preferences. Think about thewater regularly the first few times to facilitate its installation.
Layer the heather
Heather layering is an easy technique for get new plants.
For the layering by burial of a flexible rod, you can proceed in autumn in fresh soil or right away in early spring before plant growth resumes.
For good choose your layering plantyou need to make sure that she is tall enough, vigorous and healthy.
- Choose one or more very flexible stems, depending on the number of plants you want, located on the periphery of the clump.
- Next to your heather, prepare a trench of a few centimeters in which you will put soil.
- Bend the selected stem so as to put it in contact with the soil over a fairly large part.
- Using a piece of iron in the shape of an arc, hold it down.
- Then cover this stem with potting soil except for its end, which you must leave in the open air.
- The part that is underground will thus produce roots.
- The following year, you can wean your layer. That is to say, you will detach it from the mother plant by cutting below the roots. You can then install it in the ground or in a pot.
- Water regularly to promote recovery.