Propagation is one of my favourite gardening activities.

It's the pleasure of growing things, the joy of seeing something come to life from a seed or a cutting combined with the fun of sharing plants with family and friends. Including non-gardeners - it's amazing the interest that the gift of a home-grown plant can arouse.

Late winter is a great time for propagation, before spring's headlong rush takes over.

Flowering bulbs such as hyacinths that you have grown indoors can be planted in the garden when their flowers are over, provided that they were grown in fertile potting mix.

If you grew them in bulb fibre - or even water for the enjoyment and edification of children or grandchildren - they'll have no reserves left and will have to be composted.

I always grow hyacinths in potting mix and have been planting them out for years and they make a brilliant splash of colour in the semi-shade of a crab apple tree.

The flowers are smaller than in their original season indoors but still smell lovely.

True snowdrops (Galanthus species, not snowflakes or Leucojum) may be moved when their flowers are over but before the leaves die.

They won't survive if lifted and kept until autumn like other bulbs. Lilies (Lilium sp) that are propagated in autumn are the same.

You can also move other bulbs "in the green" as long as you dig well down beneath them and extract all their roots.

I have some 'Bingo' daffodils (Narcissus) with flat yellow petals and orange cups that I'm thinking would make a lovely little spring corner near some pale blue flowering rosemary and a brilliant yellow winter jasmine (J. nudiflorum).

I have only to lift a few bulbs to get started, they will soon multiply, but I need to do it now while the ground near the rosemary is damp (and before I forget).

Ornamental grasses can be divided and replanted now, in fact it's the ideal time to do this. The only issue I have is that many of mine have become intractable and hard to handle with age.

I've just divided a clump of Lomandra "Frosty Tops", with blue green, upright leaves and scented yellow flowers but with a root system so dense I had to dig out the entire clump before dividing it with a sharp spade.

I ended up with half a dozen new plants so it was worth the effort, but it took some doing.

Spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana) is far less challenging. This is a great edging plant, with grassy leaves and small, starry, three-petalled flowers that come and go all summer, drought and frost tolerant. It comes in several colours including pale and deep blue, magenta and white.

A clump is easy to pull apart into small sections, each with its own roots. Trim off the outer, longer leaves and replant the low growing centre - it should soon shoot, and flower in its first season.

Early spring is a good time to take cuttings of the Chinese winter honeysuckle, Lonicera fragrantissima as, its small, creamy white flowers finish.

This semi-evergreen honeysuckle is a maddening shrub that always looks a total mess, with tangled branches and small, leathery leaves that refuse to fall as the new ones emerge.

But its scent is incomparable and I wouldn't be without it. Like all honeysuckles it's easy from cuttings.

Lastly, seeds to sow now: start snow peas in a saucer of water on the kitchen bench and plant them as soon as they sprout.

Lonicera fragrantissima is available by mail order from Yamina Rare Plants, www.yaminarareplants.com.au.