Gardens are a form of autobiography.
~Sydney Eddison Every year about this time, while having a nice, quiet drive through the countryside, my husband, the Sailing Guy, is faced with my sudden, urgent exclamation to Stop! One time we turned around and the subject was a moose in someone’s front yard. (That was when we were new to the Palouse and excited by that sort of thing, and actually, we still are.) But usually I have spotted an interesting plant in bloom or a beautiful rose blossom. I snatch a branch and hop back in the truck and off we go to continue our journey. Such is the beginning of my effort to grow a new plant for our own garden.
There are several ways to start new plants besides growing them from seeds. Some of these techniques are: division, cuttings and layering. Cuttings can be softwood or hardwood and can be of stems, leaves or roots of a plant. I have the most success with softwood cuttings of the stems of plants. Softwood cuttings are taken when plants are about halfway through this year’s growing season. Choose the stems that are neither the newest, greenest growth, nor the oldest. They should be pliable but firm. If you are a hardcore propagator, you will travel with pruning shears, zip-lock bags and rooting hormone. My traveling kit (which goes hiking with me as well) consists of a Swiss Army knife and plastic bags. As soon as I get home, I prepare the stems for planting. Young side shoots from 2 to 6 inches in length, cut directly below a leaf or leaf node, are the best candidates for cuttings. Prepare small 4” plastic pots with a mixture of equal amounts of peat and sand (or perlite). Thoroughly dampen the peat mixture with water, then drain. Dip the end of the stem in rooting hormone and with a pencil make a small hole in the soil. Place the stem in the hole and carefully firm the soil around it, taking care not to rub the powdery hormone off of the stem. Then cover the pot and plant with glass or plastic. I place a quart-canning jar upside down over each pot. For the next few days, check your cuttings to be sure they are staying moist but not getting mildewed. You may need to spray water on the plants with a spray bottle if they seem to be drying out. After a few days, remove the covering for a little while each day, striving to get to the point where the cuttings will not wilt when left exposed to the air. Rooting will take from 3 to 12 weeks depending on species and conditions. Some may not root until the following spring. Hang in there! Some good candidates for cuttings are native shrubs such as red-flowering currant, Ribes sanguineum; serviceberry, Amelanchier alnifolia; oceanspray, Holodiscus discolor; Syringa, Philadelphus lewisii; Nootka rose, Rosa nutkana. Most deciduous shrubs will root from softwood cuttings including roses, clematis (take cuttings of clematis from between leaf nodes), hydrangea, deutzia and buddleia. Cuttings can also be taken from perennials and herbs. Increasing your plant stock by making your own cuttings is a fun way to be very involved in garden building. I hope you’ll try it soon.
Holly Barnes loves this month in her garden and in Moscow. She will be gently coaxing all her new plant cuttings along through the heat. |
