I had a cunning plan to ensure my many softwood cuttings survived my inattention whilst out of the country on holiday.  You can read about it here.

In summary, I bagged up each pot separately and gave each a good water before sealing the bag.

I thought this would probably work and in general it has.  The cuttings look in good shape, mostly perky and green, and with signs of new growth and the occasional soggy root.  I’ve lost a few inividual cuttings that have rotted off, but the majority are totally fine.

As soon as I came back from holiday I opened up each bag, but have otherwise left them undisturbed for a couple of days and then removed the pots and left them as they were on the heated bench.

The roll-call is as follows:

These lobelia cuttings are looking very healthy, no sign of rot or mould and some encouraging new top growth. 

One or two iffy looking cuttings in these salvia but the others are healthy.

Euphorbia all happy campers.

The gaura are all nice and perky with some new growth.

The carnations piping are untidy but healthy. They might need potting on.

One or two losses in the weigela but most are fine.

Scrappy looking but the lavender look ok too.

Monarda looking very good with some new top growth.

The last batch are also salvia, different variety and for some reason these cuttings have suffered much more than the others. 

Overall, pretty happy with the outcome. I can thus recommend this approach, it certainly works for 2 weeks, I think they would probably have been fine for even another week or two, there is still plenty of water in each bag.

I’ll be back soon with more propagation news.