I like Japanese anemone, I have the ‘honorine jobert’ variety. I’ve had them a good 10 years, in two clumps. I would like them to spread a little but they are quite stubbornly well behaved – too well behaved! Back in mid November I resolved to take matters into my own hands. Japanese anemone are one of a relatively small group of plants that respond well to root cuttings. I initially tried to dig down the side of a plant and chop a bit of root away but in the end I just sacrificed one of the plants, digging it up. I took it to the shed and trimmed away all but the root sections.

Then it is a case of cutting up the roots into fairly short sections, remembering to keep track of which way is up. The top of each section is where the new growth will come, the bottom is where the new roots will come. Planting the right way up is thus essential!

It looks like some kind of elvish runes. What can it be trying to say? “Fresh jaques”, it looks like.

I used quite a gritty compost mix, filling a half-size seed tray, then poked each section of root in so that the top just sits at the level of the compost. Once they were all set up, a light watering, then into the heated bench they went.

In quite short order, about a month, new growth appears out of the top. Encouraging though this is, one mustn’t celebrate too soon. There are unlikely to be roots this quickly, there is enough energy in the original root sections to power a bit of top growth for a while.

Almost 3 months after taking the cuttings we have quite a bit of action up top.

I am sorely tempted to tip these out and pot them on, but I resist. I don’t yet see any roots coming through the holes in the tray, and moreover, there really is no rush. I will leave them be till spring has sprung. Probably…

I’ll be back soon with more propagating prattle.