Here is your dose of plant propagation for the day! Eight cuttings with roots (more or less) potted up and ready to go. I was very happy to find roots on the stem of my snowball viburnum cutting.
I added three more ‘Purple Homestead’ verbenas to the collection.
Here’s that new snowball viburnum. This variety is sterile so vegetative propagation is the only way to propagate it. Viburnums will layer easily if you would rather propagate them through that method. Layering is much more of a “sure thing” than taking a cutting. Since the rooted plant is still attached to the mother plant it receives nourishment while it is forming roots. This new plant was made through a stem tip cutting taken in July. It may have taken 4-6 weeks for it to root; well worth the wait if you like viburnums!
Here’s another English laurel to add to the other seven I have potted up. I hope one day to replace our hollies in the front garden with these ‘Schip’ laurels (Prunus laurocerasus). They are evergreen, have white flowers in the spring, and root fairly easily. Sounds like great plant to me!
Here are three euonymous cuttings still in the rooting medium before I potted them up. I use all sorts of regular household containers to propagate plants. I believe these are Euonymus japonicus or Golden Euonymus. These cuttings were taken from a plant that was in the shade and had lost it’s variegated golden hue. I kind of like the two shades of green.
Only one of the three had real roots, the other two I decided to pot up anyway in the hopes that they would root in the potting mix.
Here is some ‘Walker’s Low’ Catmint that I planted in the ground a few weeks ago from cuttings. It’s growing strong despite a lack of rainfall. Catmint is extremely easy to take care of and propagate. Here’s one quick propagating tip: pinch the terminal growth off when you start the cutting. That sends the energy into making new roots then will encourage the plant to branch, which will make a bushier plant.
This crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica) was started from a sucker earlier this summer. I put it in our rain garden to eventually become a background flowering tree. I’ll train it to become a tree with three main stems rather than a large bush. This crape myrtle should have a reddish color on its blooms. I don’t know the name of the variety but it can grow taller than 15 feet.
Great tips on how to do cuttings Dave. I will have to give it a try with some of my favorite plants.
My education is not what it should be in propagation. I try it once in a while but with hit and miss results. I love reading your results.
They are all doing very well and look great.
You make this process seem so easy! It is such a cost effective way to garden. Before long, your yard will have little grass remaining!
I’ve never seen such a baby crape myrtle before. That is really cool and so successful too. I bet it will be beautiful when grown
Are you aware of how invasive some of your plants are, such as the euonymus? As a gardener, I understand your love to diversify but as a naturalist, it is devastating to see what non-native plants, that have escaped cultivation, are doing to the forests. Plants such as Japanese honeysuckle vine and bush, vinca, euonymous, russian olive and others are literally destroying the eastern deciduous forest. I hope you will consider NOT using invasive species in your plantings, and encouraging others to not do it either. I’m sure you are aware that native plants are better for the wildlife and the environment.
Thanks PG! Definitely give it a try, but expect some failures since not everything will root!
Eve,
What has helped me the most was the AHS book called Plant Propagation. It has all kinds of information on plant propagation.
Thanks Tina 🙂
Skeeter,
Less Grass means less gas right? 😉
DP,
They grow very fast, by next year it could be a 10 foot tree, it all depends on rain…if only we had some!
Cindy,
You make good points and I agree with your perspective only the plants I spoke about in this post are not on any exotic invasive list that I know about. The euonymus that I mentioned is not Euonymus alata (Burning Bush) or Euonymus fortunei (Wintercreeper). It’s actually Euonymus japonicus, which is not on the Tennessee Exotic Pest Plants Council list. I checked Virginia’s list as well and did not find it. Of the other plants in this post:
‘Purple Homestead’ verbena is a cross between the native Verbena canadensis and an unknown verbena (which makes it somewhere between 50% to 100% native), the viburnum is sterile so it can’t become invasive, the Schip laurel isn’t invasive in my experience (in fact I’ve never seen a seedling). I suppose the catmint could be invasive if ‘Walker’s Low’ wasn’t a sterile variety and the crape myrtles aren’t invasive unless you count the fact that so many people plant them.
I have practiced on invasive plants before just to see if I could get them to root, but I don’t put them in my landscape nor do I give them to anyone else. I have a few plants in my yard that I would love to trade out for something else but as with many people money to replace them is not always available. Most of them like the nandina and Bradford pears were already established when we bought our house.
I do have a few invasives on my sidebar list of propagated plants that you might be referring to and I might remove the links to those posts so I won’t be encouraging invasive propagation.
I think next week I’ll do a post about exotic invasives since it is an interesting and important topic. Trust me I’ll never plant kudzu!
i'm constantly amazed at the decisions that naturalists take to take offense to the growth and movement of plants….I realize the "Scientists" want to be the high priests of these times but sometimes the sacrifices they demand including shaping our sense of beauty and natural value to their honed image is absurd…Kudzu and bamboo appear to be the only truly invasive species the humans struggle to control. The priests wear no clothes.
DeCoughey