Globe artichoke cuttings

I took two cuttings from my 3 year old globe artichoke plant this week. Small plantlets emerge from the soil around the base of the parent plant. These should be cut off as close to the main stem as possible, ideally taking some root with it. These two were a bit sorry for themselves for a couple of days. I cut off most of the large leaves as the small plant would be under some distress for a while. They perked up and are looking fairly happy now.

The main globe artichoke plant is about 5 foot high now. There are some artichokes showing that are the size of a tennis ball. I have terrible problems with blackfly on globe artichokes. Most years they are quite inedible as the black critters just infest right the way through each heart. I am thinking of wrapping each of the heads in a package of fleece right now. Does anyone have any suggestions? I love eating them, but they really get infested.