I'm a gardens editor and these are the hardwood cuttings you should be taking in October for free bushes, trees and shrubs next year

Yellow flowering forsythia shrub in spring.

The days are shortening, the temperatures are dipping, and gardeners have begun committing small acts of plant-based piracy (politely, of course) by taking hardwood cuttings in October.

Don’t be fooled by the very unsexy name: hardwood cuttings are, quite honestly, propagation at its most satisfying. All you have to do is snap off a stick from your favourite shrub, shove it into a pot of compost, and...