Seeds

Now is a good time to take the clematis cuttings. I have failed in previous years but have at last succeeded by not enclosing them in a humid atmosphere. I have kept the top leaf dry and watered from the bottom and kept them in the shade under the staging of the greenhouse. It is almost three weeks and every single one looks great so far. I took a dozen cuttings using the half ripe parts.previously I was treating the cuttings the same way that I do for Camelias.
(sealed inside a polythene bag )

The fridge is one way of stratifying your seeds, but best of all is to expose them to the changing season outdoors, suitably protected from Birds and Mice, and in the Spring from Slugs and Snails. Acers do well either way, but Paeonia delavayi I sow in Autumn outdoors in the soil, and the seeds germinate not the folowing Spring but the one after that. I kept green shading over them , and sometimes in the first year they usually need some extra covering of peat or leaf mould as the rain washes the old soil away.