Our Propagation Expert Emily's Favourite Tools

This week, our Head Gardener Åsa catches up with Emily, our Propagation Expert, to find out which gardening tools she couldn’t be without.

This is not a sponsored post; these are the tools Emily genuinely use day in, and day out. Of course, there are cheaper alternatives available, but when you are producing thousands of seedlings and cuttings each year, investing in durable tools that feel comfortable in your hand can make all the difference.

Emily has been part of the team at Chatto’s Plants & Gardens for over 35 years. She first joined us during her school holidays, before coming onboard full-time in 1991. Working closely with Beth, who generously shared her passion for plants, flower arranging and propagation, Emily soon discovered a love for growing plants that has stayed with her ever since.

Over the years, she honed her skills under Beth’s watchful eye, developing not only her propagation skills but also her artistic flair for creating beautiful floral arrangements and eye-catching plant displays.

One of the florist tools Emily treasures is a kenzan, or pin frog, traditionally used in Ikebana, the Japanese art of arranging flowers. Beth often used hers to arrange flowers in a low bowl or dish filled with water and Emily still uses them today. Simple, reusable and wonderfully effective, these weighted devices come in different sizes and hold stems securely in place, making them a more environmentally friendly alternative to floral foam.

Add water to sit a little above the pin bed to keep stems hydrated. In a deeper vessel you can add more water.

With most of the seed and cutting material growing right here in the garden, Emily spends time throughout the year collecting and cleaning seeds. Some seeds need to be sown fresh, while most are saved for sowing when the team returns after the Christmas breaks. You’ll often spot her out in the garden with snips in hand and a canvas tool pouch full of paper bags, ready to collect whatever catches her eye.

Alongside seed sowing, Emily uses a variety of propagation techniques, from bulb-chipping to leaf, stem and root cuttings. Working closely with Debbie, our resident cuttings queen, she makes sure there’s always a good supply of young plants growing on to stock our nursery.

You may also recognise Emily from our plant fair stall, or perhaps you’ve joined one of her ever-popular propagation courses or workshops. Passionate about sharing what she knows, Emily continues Beth’s tradition of teaching and inspiring others, helping to nurture the next generation of horticultural talent.

Recently, Emily led a bulb-chipping Masterclass at Waterperry Gardens, Oxford, as part of Hortistry, an initiative launched in April 2026 to help bridge the horticultural skills gap through practical, hands-on learning.

Read more about the Hortistry day HERE

So, let’s find out which tools Emily reaches for time and time again.

Beth’s old set of seed sieves is one of Emily’s most treasured pieces of kit. It’s perfect for removing chaff and other unwanted material when cleaning seeds.

A small dibber is an essential tool for pricking out young seedling into plug trays. It helps you gently lift the seedlings from the seed tray (always holding them by the leaves), make a hole in the fresh compost and firm them into place.  It’s equally useful for cuttings, making a hole in the compost before gently firming it around the stem. For small batches a pencil works just as fine, but for speed and consistency both Emily and Debbie prefer using dibbers.

It’s not just the Garden team that consider Niwaki’s Hori Hori an essential piece of kit. Perfect for weeding, it also handy for lifting self-sown seedling from the garden, to transplant or pot up and grow on.

The smaller Niwaki Mini S-type Hori Hori, with its serrated blade, is just as useful for more delicate jobs, from teasing clumps of seedlings out of a seed tray to weeding pots and carefully lifting young succulents from their main pot for repotting.  

Emily always has her Niwaki Garden Snips to hand. They’re lightweight and small enough to tuck into her cross-body pouch, alongside a pencil and paper bags for collecting seeds, as well as a small ball of garden string. As any gardener knows, string comes in handy for all sorts of jobs, from tying in stems to securing a stocking over a seed head to catch ripening seeds.

It’s worth noting that some of us find the spring on the snips can pinch the palm of our hand, so we prefer the ARS 300L Fruit Pruners instead.

For tougher jobs, when tackling thicker stems Emily reaches for her Niwaki Daikiba Secateurs.

Kneeler and gloves are useful for some jobs, especially when weeding and cleaning the seed tunnel and greenhouse.

Like the Garden team – you can read the blog about their favourite tools HERE – Emily uses the Niwaki Mini Clean Mate and a sharpening stone to keep her tools in good working order. She adds a small dab of Camellia oil afterwards to give the blades a protective barrier, keeping rust at bay.

Other essentials include a compost tamper to levelling compost in seed trays, a watering can with a fine rose for gently watering seeds and cuttings, and plant labels to keep track of what’s growing. A notebook is also invaluable to record sowing dates, the type and quantities of seeds sown, and the number of cuttings. And, of course, a bucket, dustpan and brush to keep the workbench tidy!