Cloning

This week's post is all about the lack of genetic diversity in many of our gardens and why we need to address this in order to create a more climate-resilient garden.

🌱 I'm Sally Morgan, an organic gardener and botanist who loves to experiment. Here you can read about matters relating to climate change, sustainability, organic gardening and growing veg, helping you to become a climate savvy gardener 🌱☀️🌧️❄️🌡️

Cloning simply means making an exact copy. OK, gardeners don’t call it cloning. We use the fancy term ‘vegetative propagation’ but its the same thing - taking cuttings, grafting or using other asexual methods i.e. no seeds needed!

We love taking cuttings. Cuttings cost nothing so you get plants for free. It’s easy to populate a new garden without having to buy additional plants, to give plants as gifts, or raise money at plant sales. May be we love the colour so much that we want an exact copy and how many times do we divide up a clump of perennials and plant them elsewhere in the garden? Vegetative propagation is much quicker and more reliable than growing from seed, so all pretty valid reasons to clone.