The Madder plants that I have been growing for the past three years were all started from seed. The germination rate has been very good – I’d say over 75%, and the plants were fairly easy to transplant into the garden. Once established (second or third year) they started to spread nicely and this year some second-season plants have bloomed!
There is still some room in the Madder patch, so I’ve attempted 2 methods to establish some additional plants – cuttings rooted in pots of soil, and using wire staples to keep longer shoots on existing plants in place in the soil so they develop roots of their own, much like strawberry runners do.
The cuttings are a second attempt – first time I put some in a jar of water (with a small shoot of willow to encourage rooting) and all they did was rot. Most of the cuttings in pots rotted as well, but a couple did root and have now been planted out in the Madder patch.
I think it’s too soon to tell if the shoots held down in the soil with staples (made from lengths of hanger wire) are rooting themselves. They do look healthy, but they are still attached to the parent plants.
Madder appears to be a nice hardy plant in our 3a (Canadian climate) zone. It grows best in the same conditions that Lavender likes.
I’ve tried all the same methods to propagate Lavender, with no success – has anyone been able to propagate Lavender from cuttings? How did you get it to root?
Penny from the Urban Weaver here. Doesn’t it take a lot of madder to get any colour? I thought that the roots only accumulated the red pigment under very sunny conditions (which we don’t get much of here in Vancouver) and the plant is very small.
Now you have my email address, please contact me and I’ll keep you up to date on what’s happening with the Vancouver flax/linen. The UW blogspot is a shared site with the basketweaver who has a Mac – blogspot doesn’t seem to be a problem for Apple so won’t change it to wordpress. If I email posts as an attachment he says he’ll try and find time to put them on the site. And we all thought that the internet would make sharing info easy!
Hi Penny,
I sent you an email direct, so you’ll have my address too. So much enjoy reading about your activities – wish I lived closer and could visit!
Liz
I have been very successful striking lavender. Make the cuttings just under a node at the part of the stem where there is the change from soft wood to hard wood, ie where this and last seasons growth join.
You might improve your strike rate by dipping the end of each cutting into an unprocessed honey before putting into the potting medium
Thanks Penny, I’m going to give it another try! I wasn’t cutting at a node, but I’ll do that and also look for some natural honey.
If you don’t have a problem with using a commercial rooting hormone, which can be found at almost any nursery or garden center, it would be a good way to get the cuttings to root.
Hi,
I’m certainly willing to give it a try. In order to get enough roots for dyeing, I’m going to need more plants. Thanks for the info!
Liz