Hyssop can be used in many ways and adorns every garden with a long-lasting bloom. Many reasons to take good care of it and to propagate it yourself.
Propagating hyssop: sowing, cuttings or division
Of course you can use ready-made hyssop plants (Hyssopusofficinalis) in gardening shops. However, you have even more joy in what grows in your own garden or on the balcony if you have raised it yourself from the beginning and even multiplied it. You can easily multiply the hyssop yourself. There are also several other options:
sowing
If you have harvested the seeds of the previous year's flower or bought hyssop seeds, you should not hesitate to propagate the spice yourself by sowing. However, the seed should not be sown outdoors before the beginning of May. Indoors, you can start pre-breeding as early as mid-March and plant out strengthened young plants in mid-May. Hyssop germinates with light, which is why the seed should not be covered with a layer of substrate that protects it from drying out during germination. A high-quality potting soil such as our peat-free soil is best suited as a substrate
Plantura Organic Herb & Seed Soil.cuttings
In spring or early summer, cuttings can be taken from a hyssop plant and quickly rooted. The cuttings should be about 5 cm long. Ideally, a flower or flower bud should not yet be visible - so all the energy goes into the production of the roots and not into the development of the flowers. It is best to use special propagation substrate for cuttings and keep the humidity high as long as the cuttings have not yet developed roots. This is easily accomplished with a see-through dome seed tray available at any hardware store. As soon as the first roots form, the sensitive cuttings are accustomed to "normal" air by gradually removing the hood for longer and longer.
lowering
Some herbs can be propagated simply by division. However, this method is not suitable for hyssop, as it is a semi-shrub. It is virtually impossible to cut through the woody base of hyssop without endangering the life of the spicy plant. However, the hyssop can be propagated via sinkers. To do this, a shoot that is relatively strong but still flexible is bent down so that it is in contact with the ground. There the branch is fixed with a piece of thick wire or a herring, for example, and earth is piled up. However, the tip of the shoot sticks out vertically from the ground. Roots are then formed at the point in contact with the ground. After a while, the lowered shoot can be separated from the mother plant and placed in the garden or in a planter.
Caring for hyssop: cutting and overwintering
If the hyssop in your own garden is not cut regularly, the subshrub loses its shape and attractiveness. The shoots become long and bare and become increasingly woody. To make matters worse, you must not cut into the woody part of the plant, since the hyssop can no longer sprout from here. It is therefore advisable to regularly shorten the unwoody part and keep the hyssop in good shape.
It can be cut in autumn, but then sensitive cut surfaces are created into which the frost can move in and cause damage in severe winters. It is therefore better to only cut the hyssop in the spring before new growth and shorten it to just above the woody part of the plant. This also promotes the branching of the aromatic subshrub and thus increases the yield of the harvest.
What you hopefully great at Hyssop Harvest should be observed in our special article.