December Garden Jobs | Planting Onions in Modules 🧅 Propagating Petunias from Cuttings 🌺
Hello everyone. It is the last week of December here in West Sussex, cold and bright, with a wind that makes it feel a few degrees below zero. I did not fancy being out for long, so most of today happened in the shed with the little radiator on. I had two jobs in mind: taking some petunia cuttings before the plant gives up, and finally getting my leftover onions into modules.
A petunia still hanging on
In one of my earlier monthly tours, either October or November, I mentioned a Surfinia petunia still growing in the flower border. I honestly forgot about it, but this morning I noticed through the kitchen window that it was somehow still alive. Our winters here are not severe and we rarely get prolonged frost, but the week ahead looks properly cold, so I doubt it will make it much longer.
The remaining foliage is covered in snail and slug marks, so this really was the last minute to do anything with it. I thought that while it was still alive I might as well take a few cuttings before the whole plant goes to waste. I will be honest, I am not entirely sure what I am doing. I watched a few videos, but most were filmed in the warmer months, so this is a bit of a gamble.
Taking and prepping the cuttings
I managed to take eight cuttings, most of them shorter than I would have liked. People online recommend taking cuttings as long as possible to give them the best chance, but you work with what you have and hope for the best.
To prep each one I stripped off the lower leaves and cut some of the remaining leaves in half. The idea is that the plant can still photosynthesise a little, but puts its energy into making roots rather than growing more foliage. I found the scissors gave me far more precision than my fingers.
Rooting them in water
Because it is around zero degrees, the shed would be too cold to keep the cuttings in, so I am not leaving them out there. Instead I popped them into a little jar of water, an old yogurt pot in fact, which I often reuse for jobs like this.
They are going on the windowsill indoors for a few days to see if they release any fresh roots. If they do, I will move them on into modules so they can establish properly in some compost. Fingers crossed for these eight little stems.
Onions into modules
Next I turned to the onions I had left over from a few months ago and never got round to planting. Rather than let them go to waste, I decided to start them off in module trays. I checked them over first, and they were mostly fine, firm and not rotten, with about half of them already sprouting. So there is still a good chance to rescue them.
I filled tray after tray with compost and popped an onion into each module. I have a real mix, red ones and white ones, from this year and last. Some of the trays are broken because they were flimsy cheap ones, but as long as they hold together I keep on using them. Once the allotment soil is less boggy I can move the onions straight into the ground.
Keeping the cat off
My plan was to put the onion trays outside so they get the weather, the sun, the rain and the frost, and let nature do its thing. The trouble is a neighbour's cat that likes to jump over the fence into my garden. Since the onions are not rooted yet, it would be all too easy for the cat to knock them out of the plugs.
So for now the trays are going into the greenhouse. I gave them a water, and they should be happy to sit in there for a little while. Once the roots have set a bit I can move them out into the open.
Grateful for the shed
I say it often, but I am so glad I have this shed. On a day like today, cold and windy, it lets me carry on pottering when being outside would not be much fun. With the little radiator behind me it is toasty enough to have my jacket off and just work in my jumper.
A quick update to finish: the baby raspberry canes still seem to be alive, so we will see how they get on. That was about it for today.
In this video
- Taking cuttings from a Surfinia petunia before winter finishes it off
- Prepping cuttings by removing lower leaves and halving the rest
- Rooting eight cuttings in a jar of water on the windowsill
- Planting leftover red and white onions into module trays
- Moving the onion trays into the greenhouse to keep the neighbour's cat off
- Working cosily in the shed on a near-zero December day
None of this was very grand, just a few small jobs to make the most of a cold, bright day and to save some plants that would otherwise have gone to waste. That is winter gardening for me: gentle, hopeful and a little bit of a gamble. If you have had luck propagating petunias over winter, I would love to hear how you got on.
You might also like
