Hello

I have 4 catnip plants that I recently bought from a garden center.
Here's a pic.
http://img171.echo.cx/img171/306/catnip5yd.jpg
Plants are about 6" high.

Basically my aim is to grow as many of these as quickly as possible (my
cat's love them so much!!!) and I've heard a little about taking cuttings
from plants and growing them up but I was wondering if these plants are too
young to do it with at the moment.

Also I don't know how to take cuttings, I have 0 gardening experience so any
advice would be greatly appreciated

Thanks very much
--
Ant

"Ant" wrote in message
...
Basically my aim is to grow as many of these as quickly as possible (my
cat's love them so much!!!) and I've heard a little about taking cuttings
from plants and growing them up but I was wondering if these plants are
too
young to do it with at the moment.


I have never grown catnip (nepeta cataria) but last year I propagated
ornamental catmint (nepeta faasseni) which I think is very close. I bought
a small plant for £1.50 in a local garden centre and within two weeks I had
4 children of about the same size and 3 or 3 weeks later I had lots of
grandchildren. I could not face any more!

Your plant sounds plenty large enough. Cut off as many lengths of 2 to 3
inches as you can - I managed 4. You must leave at least one preferably two
pairs of leaves on each mother plant stalk, so as not to kill the stalk.
Pull all the leaves off the lower part of the cuttings leaving just 2 or 3
small ones at the top. Dip the bottom in rooting powder (may well work
without) and insert the bottom half into a small pot of moist compost. It is
worth putting a small polythene bag with some ventilation holes over the
pot. This is to retain moisture. The plant will lose moisture through its
leaves,but has no roots yet to suck up moisture from the compost. Keep warm
but out of direct sunlight and wait for nature. Mine took only 2 to 3 weeks
to grow to the original mother plant size, but that will vary with
temperature and time of year.

best of luck Peter

On Sat, 16 Apr 2005 11:44:13 +0100, "Ant" wrote:

I have 4 catnip plants that I recently bought from a garden center.
Here's a pic.
http://img171.echo.cx/img171/306/catnip5yd.jpg
Plants are about 6" high.

Basically my aim is to grow as many of these as quickly as possible (my
cat's love them so much!!!) and I've heard a little about taking cuttings
from plants and growing them up but I was wondering if these plants are too
young to do it with at the moment.

Also I don't know how to take cuttings, I have 0 gardening experience so any
advice would be greatly appreciated

Catnip is probably as good a plant to learn "taking cuttings" with as
any. Nearly all the members of the Lamiaceae are dead easy from
cuttings.

In this case, I'd plant out your young plants and wait until summer
when the weather is warm (or what passes for warm in the UK). Then cut
off non-flowering growing tips several inches long, trim each one to
just below a node (where a pair of leaves emerge), poke a narrow hole
in the soil, insert your cutting, and gently press the soil around it.

Just do this wherever you want new plants. Most will root without
further ado, though you might want to put a glass jar over each
cutting so kitty doesn't maul them.

You might want to find someone to show you how; taking cuttings is
really very easy, but sometimes written descriptions have all the
clarity of mud.

--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, BC, Canada
to send email, change atlantic to pacific
and invalid to net

Thanks Peter and Rodger for your replies, sounds interesting and I'm looking
forward to trying it out very soon!