To me it’s amazing that you can do so much with so little. All together there are 35 cuttings placed into these two small containers. I like to use containers that look nice in the house whenever I do cuttings but I have to admit more often I find myself using recycled/reused materials. Even in a small reused (washed of course) yogurt cup you can fit 5-8 cuttings. In the above picture I’ve mixed the cuttings in no particular way but it’s a good idea to try and keep cuttings separated from each other by type. You can pretty much bet that if your cuttings were taken on the same day and are of the same kind that they will root in a similar fashion – give or take a few days. Keeping the cuttings together by type enables you to minimize the disturbance of other cuttings when you check for rooting.
By The Numbers:
Azalea Cuttings: 2
Japanese Maple Cuttings: 3
Purple Leaf Plum Cuttings: 10
Red Twig Dogwood Cuttings: 12
Rhododendron Cuttings: 3
Yoshino Cherry Cuttings: 5
I’ve never managed to successfully root a Japanese maple so I thought I would give it a try. There was a branch that needed pruned off of one of our maples and after I clipped it I divided it into 3 4-6 node hardwood cuttings. Hopefully I’ll get at least one of them to root. Many people have good luck growing Japanese maples from seed and some from air layering.
I rooted a Yoshino cherry last year from hardwood cuttings but the new little tree didn’t make it much past rooting. I think I checked the roots too often – patience is not one of my best virtues but I’m working on it! It’s one of my favorite trees and I would love to get a few to root this year.
Have you tried any hardwood cuttings this winter? It’s not too late to get a few going!
Tomorrow I hope to show you the results of some hardwood viburnum cuttings!