Salvia is one of my favorite perennials to propagate and spring and summer are the best times to do root cuttings of salvia from stem tip cuttings. Pretty soon our gardens will be filled with salvia blooms and you’ll see why I like them so much. I’ll post a picture at the bottom of this post if you’re curious! The salvia in question for today’s post is a cultivar of Salvia nemorosa called ‘East Friesland’. The method of propagation I’ll show you is one that should work on many salvias and probably quite a few other perennials as well. So if you’ve been wondering if you can propagate salvia from cuttings read on!
How to Propagate Salvia from Cuttings
For taking salvia cuttings first locate an ideal stem for a cutting. This particular stem has three nodes – one apical bud (at the stem tip), and two other nodes. I’ve done stem tip cuttings of salvia with only two nodes before so it will work but three will result in a larger plant a little bit faster. Once I’ve found the salvia stem tip I want I cut just below the bottom node. The nodes (where the buds are) contain auxins which are naturally occurring growth hormones used to induce root or leaf growth. (Also Salvia will root from the internode so you do not have to have a node at the bottom).
What are nodes on a plant? Nodes are where the branches and leaves form on the plant. The internode is the area between two nodes.
Here’s a look at the salvia cutting after I’ve separated it from the plant. Notice that there are several leaves that aren’t necessary. I remove all the leaves except for two and pinch off the apical bud. That will encourage the auxins (natural growth hormones in plants) to work toward generating roots rather than making new foliage at the top. Once the salvia has rooted it will also encourage lateral branching for a nice bushy plant.
Here’s how the salvia cutting looks after removing the leaves. Two leaves and two nodes with a little bit of stem in between.
The next step is to dip the cut end of the salvia cutting in rooting hormone then stick it in moist rooting medium. Then I’ll wait for 10-14 days until rooting has occurred. Once I have roots I’ll pot up my new salvia. Rooting hormone isn’t absolutely necessary for salvia cuttings but can make your success rates higher. (Rooting hormone on Amazon (Aff.))
The new salvia (S. nemorosa) should bloom by the end of this summer (at least here in Tennessee other zones may have different results). I’ve had success using this method of plant propagation with many other plants – go ahead and give it a try!
It doesn’t hurt the plant and makes it encourages it to become more full of foliage. Hopefully you can see why I want to make more salvia!
Propagating Salvia
Here is a summarized step by step of propagating Salvia. You can apply the same procedures to many other perennials.
Plant Propagation Tools and Products I like to use. (Link to some useful resources)
- First select healthy material from a healthy plant.
- Locate a good node to take your cutting underneath.
- Remove the extra leaves and the apical bud (the bud at the tip of the cutting). I generally will leave 1-2 leaves for the cutting total.
- Take a cutting and treat the end with rooting hormone. (not completely necessary but can help)
- Stick in a good rooting medium (sand, sand/peat, sand, potting soil, etc. read this article on sand vs soil as a rooting medium for more info.)
- Keep the salvia cuttings moist through either misting or tenting to maintain the humidity. Tenting can be with a plastic bag or a plastic container covering them.
- It takes about 3-4 weeks for roots to form. Check for resistance in the roots by gently pulling on the cutting. If it has resistance you may have rooting but if in doubt don’t yank it out! Give it more time and be patient if you aren’t sure the cutting is rooted.
- Once roots on your cuttings form pot them up to grow a more complete root system in a good potting soil.
An Update on some Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’ cuttings
Why Did Your Salvia Cuttings Fail to Root?
No matter how easy a plant is to root you may have some failures. My last batch of salvia cuttings rooted at about 70% which I was pleased with but I still have 30% that failed. That is perfectly normal, there will be some cuttings that don’t work out.
Be observant of what failed as there may be clue in something that you could do differently next time. Maybe it was the time of year or maybe it was the type of cutting. It could be that you let the cuttings dry out or got them too wet. In order to root cuttings you need to make the best conditions possible for rooting and usually a failure means something wasn’t right and you can make an adjustment for next time. Then again maybe it wasn’t you, it was them! Just keeping going and keep trying until you get it right.
Salvia cuttings root very reliably and that’s a really good thing since they look so great planted in a large mass of plants. Use the cuttings to fill out beds, line border gardens, or share with friends. Salvia also can be a very good starter plant to learn about plant propagation if you are just beginning. Most salvia will root very easily from cuttings but also may be propagated through division or from seeds.
What Kinds of Salvia can be Propagated?
Here’s a short list of some of the types of salvia that you can propagate. There are many more so even if your salvia is not on this list give it a shot!
Salvia nemorosa (subject in this post), S. farinacea, S. splendens, S. leucantha, S. guaranitica, S. greggii, S. longispicata, S. leucantha.
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Great tutorial. You can also do this with agastache. I plan to increase my May Night salvia collection tomorrow. It needs pinching, and it's already blooming. I want to add it to the purple/pink/white bed I've started. Thanks for the reminder. 😉
I have May Night and it really performs well for me in zone 5. It is very xeric and will take full sun and little water.
Hi thanks, that was useful. I think I'm going to go and try this on my May Night salvia.
Good, timely tutorial. I have a new plant of 'Indigo Spires' that needs propagating.
It's a good time to root S. leucantha and S. elegans since they won't bloom until September.
Great info Dave. I wonder if this will fork for hyssops. I'm guessing prob so…??
Alan,
It should. It's fairly easy to root most perennials this time of year. I haven't tried hyssop though.
Thanks Dave. The hyssop I have looks very mush like salvia so I agree with you that it should propagate the same way. Thanks!
Very good tutorial. Does anyone know how long a plant like Mystic Sprire Blue Salvia remains on the no propagation list and how to find out if it's been removed from the list?
Thank you!
Bob
Thanks Bob!
Plant patents last for 20 years from the date of application. It was filed in 2005 by Ball Horticultural Company. It looks like it's safe to propagate for sale in 2025 ;). If you're interested in propagating it for sale you can always seek out a license from the company. Here is the patent information on it: Salvia Mystic Spires
I live in Long Island NY . Can I still propagate my May night salvias this time of the year ?( MAy 5 ). Can I just dip the cuttings in water ? Thanks !
Dannick,
You should still be able to take cuttings from salvia through mid summer and still have a plant large enough to make it through winter. (Of course that all depends on how harsh a winter you have.) Now is a great time! I've never tried rooting salvia in water. sand works well and if you don't have that you could try a regular potting soil. Either should work faster and better than rooting in water.
The pictures tell it all, thanks for the great tutorial. I'll try this in my garden coming spring. Wish I could skip winter… Greetings, Cynthia (The Netherlands)
do you put the cutting-in-sand in a bag or anything like that for moisture? I see that on a lot of propagation pages…