In the late 1950's Mist Propagation was developed, and the nursery was one of the first in this country to seize the advantages offered with this technology.

Hormone powder and modern pesticides soon followed as did the arrival of plastic. Gone were the clay pots and the wooden seed trays which Johnny Crane and his successor Frank Eley knew so well. By the mid 1970's their old small glass houses were proving uneconomic and so in 1978 a new propagation department of three quarters of an acre of glass was built on Creek Field, extended by a further half acre in 1988. It was designed to include all the latest propagation technology and when it opened it was one of the most advanced propagation houses in Europe. Optimal growing and propagation environments were provided with the well proven mist system providing very small water droplets which raised the air humidity without making the compost too wet.

A dual purpose shade and thermal screen covers the entire house. Controlled by a photoelectric cell, it opens and closes during the day for shade and at night for thermal retention. The floor is heated by a series of plastic panels with micro bore tubes through which hot water is passed. The inspection of the cuttings is done from above using a roller gantry system, so the maximum amount of growing space is utilised.

Biological control of White Fly and Two Spotted Mite as well as a range of other pests is carried out within the controlled environment of the propagation unit, and pesticides are only used where essential.

A wide range of propagation techniques are used to grow the almost 3000 varieties of plants for which Notcutts has become famous. These include growing from seed, stem and root cuttings, division, layering and grafting.

Seedling rootstocks are raised and potted up before being brought into the glass house before grafting, so as to achieve a quick union. Grafting is probably the most skilled of all operations on the nursery, requiring high standards of knifemanship.

Propagation material is obtained from stock plants, production plants growing on before they are sold and specimen plants around the nursery. Dedicated stock plants are preferred as the plants can be conditioned solely for the maximum production of material. Much of Creek Farm is now turned over to growing propagation material.

Current propagation levels are in excess of 2.5 million young plants per year. Ivan Dickings, who started in the Propagation Department in 1954 became its Manager in 1978. Like Johnny Crane before him the RHS awarded him an Associate of Honour, in Notcutts Centenary year. Ivan retired in 1999.

A Micropropagation facility was added in 1982 and now a wide range of plants that are normally slow or hard to propagate are grown in the laboratory. Sterile conditions and the manipulation of natural plant hormones enables tiny plantlets to divide, grow and subsequently root before they are transferred into compost.

Traditionally the young plants produced would have been lined out in rows in the nursery fields, and were therefore called "liners". They would then have been grown on for 2 or 3 years before making a saleable size. Today young plants are potted on only when they are ready, and the growing of these young plants is carried out at the Liner Unit - a misnomer as they are potted on, and are never lined out!

In 1983 the Newbourn Land Settlement Association was disbanded and Notcutts were able to purchase 1.1 acres of propagation glass. This formed the basis of the new Liner Unit. This glass house was almost doubled in 1989, and in addition, other ex LSA local growers have been contracted to grow stock.

The liner potting operation is almost fully mechanised, with the young freshly potted plants moved around the house on conveyor belts. Knapsack mounted power packs drive 'wand' type hedge trimmers producing well branched, uniform liner plants.

The liners are graded and prepared for final potting before being despatched to one of the three container units. Preparation for potting includes pruning, and the removal of the liner pot. The liners are transported in trays, stacked on pallets.