A few weeks ago, I snipped some cuttings of a friend's weigela and set them in pots to root. I've diligently kept them covered in plastic so the soil would stay moist, and all four cuttings have rewarded me with new leaves. This morning while the day was cool, I transplanted them into potting soil. Two had developed excellent roots, one I would call mediocre, and the roots of the fourth were almost nonexistent.
I'll keep them in pots this fall so their roots can develop more; If I need to, I'll transplant them to bigger pots in the spring and wait until next fall to put them in the ground. (I've about decided not to plant anything in spring, because I'll spend the entire summer watering it. If I set out plants in October, however, they have three months of not-very-cold and hopefully wetter weather to establish their roots in the ground.)
Buoyed by my relative success in rooting the weigelas, I took some cuttings of my pretty white hydrangea to see if I could root them. This is another plant that gets 5 suns on my drought-tolerant scale. I've watered it maybe twice all summer and it looks great, even in several hours of direct sunlight.
4 comments:
Good Work, David! I actually just tried this with my pink hedge rose. I sure hope it works.
I hope so too, Gina. I've never had any luck rooting roses with this method. With some roses, you can bury the middle of a long stalk in the ground and put a rock over it to hold it in place, and it will take root that way. After it roots, just dig it up and cut it off from the parent plant. (Does this make sense? I'm not describing the process to well.)
Very cool! Maybe I'll try it with my neighbors barberrys. I'd like some barberrys and that would be a cheap way to get them. Or, I could wait for them to go to seed. They do seed don't they?
Give it a try, Wrenna. I've never rooted barberries; they might be difficult because their stems are so brittle; I have the best luck with semi-flexible stems. I think they make seeds, but I don't have any so I've never paid much attention. Be sure to write about how they do if you try to root them. Good luck!
Post a Comment