July is the Perfect Time to Propagate Your Favorite Plants – And Fill Your Garden For Free in 2027
Summer cuttings are an easy, reliable way to get lots of new plants for free.
Knowing which plants to propagate in July gives you the tools to get more of your favorites to add them to your garden. Taking cuttings is an enjoyable and cost-effective way to get new plants, and there are perennials, shrubs, and herbs on the hit list for the month.
July is a time when plants are growing strongly. There is a lot of plant material to pick from this month, and cuttings you take will quickly develop roots and shoots. The young plants that develop will need caring over winter, before being planted out next spring.
This guide looks at some of the best plants to propagate in July. With just a few tools and materials, plus a little patience, you can take plant cuttings this month and get a range of plants to add to your flower beds, borders, or containers.
An essential pruning tool is a sharp pair of pruning shears or pruning snips. These Felco pruning snips, available at Amazon, have long, straight steel blades perfect for cuttings.
Verbena
This popular cottage garden plant is an absolute winner for bringing pops of pinky-purple flowers into borders or containers.
There are around 200 different verbena varieties to grow, and perennial types are ideal for summer cuttings. You can grow verbena from seed you collect, but cuttings offer a quick, simple way to get exact clones of your favorite verbena specimens.
To take verbena cuttings in summer, pick healthy, non-flowering stems and prepare them into 4-6-inch lengths, making cuts just above a node. Remove the lower stems, leaving just a few at the top, and dip the base of the cuttings in rooting hormone – such as this hormone rooting powder at Walmart.
These cuttings can then be put either in a pot filled with compost or into a glass of water. After around 4-6 weeks, they should develop healthy roots.
At this time, pot them up into individual pots and protect them over winter in a greenhouse, cold frame, or on a bright windowsill.
Rosemary
This aromatic herb is always a popular addition to herb gardens and containers. As a staple in cooking and a great plant for pollinators thanks to its flowers, it is understandable why any gardener may fancy a few extra rosemary plants in the yard.
As it is really simple to propagate rosemary from cuttings in summer, this is easily done.
Look for flexible, green tips of stems when picking cutting material, and avoid going into the woody stems. Take 4-6 inch cuttings, remove the leaves from the lower two-thirds, and shave away the outer layer of tissue on the bottom inch with a sharp knife (like this grafting and pruning knife at Amazon).
After dipping in rooting hormone, place three to five cuttings around the edge of a small pot filled with well-draining compost. Keep the cuttings moist, but not waterlogged, and roots should form within a month.
Rosemary is hardy in zones 8-11. This makes it beneficial for gardeners in colder climates to take summer cuttings just in case their existing plants don’t make it through winter.
Lavender
Lavender remains one of those universally popular plants, thanks to its glorious fragrance, silver foliage, and purple blooms. The versatile herb can be at home either in flower beds or containers, or be used to line the edges of borders and paths.
Whether you grow lavender to pick for cooking, baking, skincare, or for medicinal purposes, summer is a prime time for propagating lavender while it is actively growing. You can collect and plant lavender seeds to get new clumps, but taking cuttings is quicker and guaranteed to give you a pure clone of the parent plant.
Pick healthy, non-flowering stems that have grown this year and are 3-6 inches long. Remove the lower leaves, dip the bottom in rooting hormone, and place the cuttings in pots filled with compost.
Cover the container with a clear bag or plastic lid and place it in a bright location, out of direct sunlight.
You can get nursery pots with humidity domes on Amazon that are ideal for starting cuttings off in.
The cuttings should root in 3-4 weeks. Then the cuttings can be potted up, and you can plant the lavender into the garden next spring.
Hydrangea
Hydrangeas brighten a summer garden with their large summer flower heads. And summer offers the chance to add to the show in future years by propagating your favorite hydrangeas.
You can take cuttings of most hydrangea varieties in July, including popular smooth, panicle, and mophead hydrangeas.
The best materials for propagating hydrangeas in July are healthy, flexible, non-flowering shoots that have grown this year. Any cuttings should be 4-6 inches long and have the lowest leaves removed. It is advisable to cut the remaining leaves in half, which helps to limit water loss.
Place the cuttings in pots filled with well-draining potting mix (you can have three or four around the edges of one pot) and cover with a clear plastic bag. This provides vital humidity and stops them drying out. Alternatively, you can place them in a propagator for the same effect.
Your new hydrangeas should root in a few weeks. Each cutting can be potted up and then planted out come spring. Pot each one into a container filled with a well-draining potting soil, like this organic potting soil from Burpee.
Penstemon
Penstemons are among the easiest perennials to grow in flower beds or containers, with their flower spikes coming in a range of colors. These blooms are long-lasting and popular with bees and other pollinators.
Taking cuttings in summer gives you lots more plants to attract bees each season. Plus, as many penstemons can struggle in cold winters, cuttings offer a nice insurance policy, especially for gardeners in colder climates.
Penstemon cuttings should be 3-5 inches long and snipped just below a leaf node. Remove the lower leaves and leave just a couple of pairs at the top. Place cuttings around the edge of a pot filled with well-draining compost and keep the soil moist, but not overly wet.
Once the individual cuttings are potted up, overwinter them somewhere frost-free before planting them out in the spring once the risk of frost has passed.
If you keep deadheading penstemon whilst in bloom, you can enjoy flowers well into fall each year. You don’t need expensive tools for this; for example, these Fiskars pruning shears at Walmart won’t break the bank and are perfect for deadheading.
Salvia
There are many great reasons to grow salvias and to want to have more in your garden. The perennials have standout long-lasting flower spikes, fragrant foliage, are drought-tolerant, low-maintenance, and adored by pollinators. It’s quite an impressive list of accolades.
Gardeners can pick between many types of salvias, with tubular blooms in shades of purple, blue, red, pink, or white. If you have a favorite salvia, taking cuttings is the perfect way to get an exact clone. The risk with collecting seeds is that salvias are known to cross-pollinate.
If you don’t mind a gamble, collecting and sowing seeds is rewarding. However, if you prefer guarantees, either propagate salvias from cuttings in summer or divide salvias while they are dormant.
You can root salvia cuttings in soil or water. Pick healthy, non-flowering stems 4-6 inches in length and remove the lower leaves. Dip the bottom in rooting hormone and then place the cuttings in a pot filled with soil, or a container of water.
Bee Balm
If you really want to boost the amount of pollinators that visit your garden, add more bee balm plants. This is a perennial with nectar-rich blooms that attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds in droves.
If you have a Monarda variety in your garden, or you know someone who has one, July is the perfect time to take cuttings and add more of these pollinator magnets to your beds.
You don’t even needs lots of space to grow bee balm. It can thrive in pots in a small container garden even make a balcony smell nice and become a haven for insects.
Take your bee balm cuttings in the morning, as the stems will be full of moisture and not dry out the second you snip them from the plant. Snip 4-6 inch lengths of non-flowering stems, cutting below a node. Remove the lower leaves, place them in a pot, and cover them with a plastic bag or humidity dome.
The cuttings will need potting up and keeping in a greenhouse, cold frame, or indoors over winter to plant out come spring. This portable wooden greenhouse at Wayfair is suitable for housing cuttings and overwintering plants.
What to Shop
A potting mix suitable for all seedlings and cuttings. It is sustainably made and contains sphagnum peat moss, perlite, limestone, and yucca extract.
This rooting hormone is designed for growing cuttings in water. Add two drops to the water, and again whenever you change the water, to speed up root development.
A pair of lightweight pruning shears with SK5 Japanese carbon steel blades. They are perfect for pruning, harvesting, and taking plant cuttings.
If you have got the itch to transform your garden, there is also the opportunity to sow lots of seeds in July. It includes annuals for speedy flowers, vegetables you will harvest come winter, and also perennials to provide blooms for years to come. Our guide to what to plant in July reveals a whole host of ornamental and edible plants that you can start from seed this month.
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