Yesterday I potted up the Russian sage cuttings (Perovskia atriplicifolia). I took nine cuttings a couple weeks ago and placed them in sand after putting some rooting hormone on the cut end. In less than two weeks we have roots! You can see the root system in the picture below. The roots come out from the sides of the stem and not just the cut end. All nine of the Russian sage cuttings rooted.
Once the cuttings root you want to get them into a potting mix so that the nutrients in the soil will help feed the plant. If I were to leave them too long in the sand medium I use for cuttings the new plants would fail. Here they are potted up next to some vinca minor. (Don't worry I have a special place or this vinca.) These cuttings are now in a morning sun only location to get acclimated for the outdoors. In the middle of the potted cuttings you can see two very tiny Russian sage plants. These were a discovery I made yesterday when I moved one of my Russian sages to a new garden bed (future post). It's nice to find unexpected seedlings. These should be very similar to my 'Longin' Russian sage since that was where I found them, but as always with seeds they may not be true, but probably true enough!
A couple of these will go in the garden, a couple will be given away, and a couple will be traded. The seedlings will also go in the garden. Since I potted up my nine Russian sage cuttings I had room for some more cuttings in the garage. I added fourteen new cuttings this morning! I love free plants.
Labels: perennial, plant propagation
