The Charming Nook

Welcome back to my blog!

Today’s post is to show you all some new plants I have grown from seed and some plants I have propagated from cuttings over the last few weeks.

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Echinacea purpurea ‘Magnus’

I sowed some Echinacea purpurea (known as purple coneflower) ‘Magnus’ from seed earlier this year and I have been letting the seedlings mature for some weeks now. The seedlings had filled their initial pots and were ready to pot on recently:

I will leave the plants to mature in their pots for now and depending on the weather, I will plant them out this Autumn or next Spring.

I’ve never grown echinaceas before. I bought these plants because they support pollinators and as their common name suggests, their seed heads become cone shaped in Winter. They look rather pretty when they are covered in frost. They grow up to one metre tall.

I plan on leaving the seed heads in place in Winter, to provide some interest, as well as food and protection for local wildlife and bugs during the colder months.

I really love their classic and large daisy flower shape, that should really punctuate the flower borders, for a bit of oomph and impact.

When I reflect on how some of my borders currently look, I think I need to add some major focal flowers like this, to give the eye clear features to rest on, as well as daintier flowers to let the eyes dance over.

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Verbena cuttings

Since Spring this year I have also been regularly taking cuttings from some Verbena bonariensis ‘Buenos Aires’.

I initially grew these plants from seedlings, that I purchased as tiny plants from Thompson and Morgan. They were so small, they were able to be posted through the letterbox!

I potted them on for months before planting them out last year and they have established really fantastically. It was worth all of the months spent looking after them!

My experiment with taking cuttings first arose following one of my verbena plants being snapped slightly by a cat/birds/the wind/who knows; I just simply took the stem that had snapped, made cuttings from it and put the cuttings into a pot with a polythene bag over, to create a warmer microclimate and increase their chances of rooting.

I had nothing to lose and to my surprise they have all taken root, incredibly easily!

Since then, I have been regularly taking cuttings as a when I find any snapped pieces of verbena. I have also been able to take cuttings from cuttings – when I have pinched out the growing tip of the cutting (to encourage it to bush out), I’ve then been able to put that cutting into a new pot! It’s pretty amazing.

Once I see roots emerge from the bottom of the pot I used for the cuttings, I then carefully separate out each rooted cutting and pot them on individually so they can bush out into large individual plants over time.

I plan on continuing to do this to increase my supply of verbena and then I will plant it out throughout my garden, as I really love how delicate and pretty the flowers are, as well as being so good as a nectar source for butterflies.

In my area in the South West of England, somehow even with some really cold days during the Winter and bitterly freezing winds at times, the verbena has stayed evergreen, with only some minor browning when it turns colder. I don’t chop this down over Winter; I just leave it be and then when I see new growth emerging in Spring, I chop down the old flower stems.

The flower stems have grown over 2 metres high this year and are so perfect woven into mixed flower borders for giving height and movement throughout the bed. I really love it!

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I am due to sow some more seeds over the next few weeks. I am taking my chances with a few of those as I am sowing late in the year; given the cooler weather we’ve had, I am experimenting to see whether I can trick the plants into thinking it is still Spring and then pot them on indoors for awhile before planting out (probably) in the Autumn!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more updates over the coming weeks!