Rosemary is easy to propagate. I just take lots of 15cm stems, remove the bottom leaves and then place the bottom stems in water. They root within 2 weeks.

Lavender I would put a cutting like above straight into a corner of a pot of sandy to root - avoid making the soil too damp as I find they rot before rooting.

Helianthemum - never tried it but it is like Lavender but you keep the soil damp.

A bright loft would be fine for them to grow until March/April till you place outside to harden off.

Thank you, Kildermorie. I've done loads of cuttings before, and had a gratifying success rate, but always in the warmer, sunnier months. I just thought plants might be sufficiently dormant at the moment not to start the rooting process.

Whoops, preaching to the converted! I started Rosemary off this time last year to make a low border hedge and it worked out really well as they more than doubled in size by autumn.

Sorry, I must have sounded a bit pompous there! It was the season, not the technique I was doubtful about, and I didn't make that clear. It seemed such a waste of really useful-looking, healthy shoots not to use them, but I'm a lazy git, and didn't want to spend time and energy doing something I was going to have to do all over again in April. I shall go and set some pots up right away and get my sharp little scalpel out! Do you bother with hormone rooting powder? I usually do, but lots of people seem to think it's unnessecary.
I'm hoping to have some reasonably sized rosemary plants by next year so that all the ones I have at the moment, and which are overreaching themselves a bit, can be replaced before they get too big and woody. It's an ongoing job.

My worry would be what to do with them before they could go out, here thats the end of may and why I don't set my seed propagator until march time,
Nothing lost trying Gattina, interesting to see if it works.....

I was assuming that they could stay cool and happy, rooting away gently until I can pot them up individually in about April, Pam, and get 'em out in the sunshine and start them into proper growth, so that a year on they can be planted into their permanent positions.
You don't happen to know about taking cuttings of perennial wallflowers, either of you?

I ve done some at the wrong time of year with base heat and they have rooted ok. slowly due to low light levels but ok. nothing to lose really.

As far as I can see you take them in the normal way into gritty compost
I think that I would keep an eye on them for botrytis
And as an experiment take some semiripe later in the year and compare the results. :0)

Thanks for asking this one Gattina. I've always taken rosemary about August with great success and , as I'm a novice at lavender, one of the bosses favourites, have shied away from it. But last year, one, that we only have one plant of, became unbearably woody, straggly, etc. so I took some cuttings of non-flowering stems in August. It was 'orrible. :o)) None took at all. So I will try this week. Thanks all of you. (And to think I knew everything - nearly).

I looked in my "complete book of plant propagation" and they suggest semi ripe in august as you say Sarra
And also layering in the spring as an option

Gattina I was out in the garden at the weekend with my pruners pottering about, I took lots of cuttings off my wallflowers and just popped then in the gaps, I do it every year, it stops the main plant getting too straggly as the new growth then fills out from the bottom, the cuttings I just pop into the ground with a dibber up to where the leaves are, I have gained lots of new plants doing it that way.....

You make it sound so simple, LL, there has to be a snag somewhere. Last year I ordered some erysimum as from Sarah Raven, and they posted them a month later than promised, so I didn't have them in time to take back to Italy with me, and my sister-in-law planted them (plugs) in her own garden. I want to take some cuttings from those same plants when we visit in April, and wanted to make sure I got the technique right. Otherwise I shall dig a couple of them up from her garden and bring them home in a sandwich box in my hand luggage! Cuttings would be better.

THANKS, Gattina for the answer to my question--> "What kind of orange tree can I grow in a container" I think I'll try what you recommended. How big will that plant grow? Do I need to fertilize with citrus food?

We seem to have swapped questions here, Jomichele, but I'll answer it here anyway - yes, you will need to feed it with citrus food, but not to start with, I think. It depends how big a plant you start with. I'd go for as big as you can afford to buy. The supplier will be able to tell you better than I can how to look after it. I don't think it grows very big at all. I have seen them here about 9', but I'm sure they grow bigger.