Crown Bud Cuttings of Delphiniums.

I have this nice white Delphinium that I want more of  and while I believe they can be increased by cuttings in spring I have decided to try something that I have never tried before which is to propagate by way of crown bud cuttings.

Below is the plant that I am taking them from and I hope it works okay because to get the cuttings I had to destroy the plant.

Once the plant you have selected for the cuttings as finished flowering cut down the flower stalks and leave the plant alone for a couple of weeks before lifting and washing clean with water. When all the dirt is cleaned of the root you will be able to see all the white buds that are to be the new shoots and these buds are what will hopefully become your new plants. I was a bit later doing these so some of the buds have already sent up leaves.

Each bud has the potential to make a plant. You really have to get in to the plant so that you can cut away the bud with a small piece of the old plant attached to it. You don't have to worry about getting it with a bit of root but if you do managed to get root already attached then that's fine. Below you can see how many potential plants I was able to get just from that one plant.

When you have all the buds removed just pot them up in to small pots and water in. Put them outdoors away from the sun and don't let them dry out. I'm not sure how long it will take for them to root but we will keep an eye on them and let you know.