As always I’m excited to get new plants through plant propagation and I’m pretty excited to add 5 new dwarf arborvitae to the collection! I bought the ‘Little Giant’ arborvitae (Thuja occindentalis) last fall on the discount rack and planted two of them in the birdbath garden on either side of the pathway to the bench spot. The idea was to create a formal look to the small pathway by placing symmetrical plantings flanking the path. ‘Little Giant’ is a small rounded arborvitae that gets about 4′ in size.
How Long Does it Take to Root Arborvitae?
I took the arborvitae cuttings in August and they took about 8-10 weeks to get to this stage. Right now they only have small tiny roots emerging from the nodes. I transferred the rooted cuttings into 4 inch pots with a soil mix to grow on longer before planting.
Can You Root Arborvitae in Winter?
Arborvitae can be successfully rooted over the winter but rooting tends to be slower. The advantage of taking winter cuttings of arborvitae is that they need a lot less maintenance. The cut ends will begin callusing and you will only need to maintain the moisture levels for your cuttings. They will not dry out as fast as growing season cuttings will. You want to increase rooting speed you can adjust the speed of rooting by adding bottom heat with a seedling heat mat. For cuttings over the winter leave them in their potting medium until they have some good root growth in the spring.
Here is a more complete step by step post on Arborvitae Propagation.
I’m hoping to take cuttings from our ‘Emerald Green’ arborvitae as well as several other evergreens soon (possibly ‘Otto Luyken’ Laurel, ‘Golden Globe’ arborvitae, and boxwoods).
Rooting Coleus from Cuttings: Easy Method to Make More Plants
If coleus (Solenostemon) is not the easiest plant cutting to root, then it must be ranked at the top of the plant propagator’s list right next to the willows. Here’s the process of rooting Coleus in water. Whether you want to multiply your coleus plants…
How to Propagate Leyland Cypress from Cuttings
Plant propagation can continue at almost every time of the year, the winter is no exception. This is especially true if you have a little space in your house to put your cuttings or can manage to manipulate them into interesting centerpieces! In this post…
Protected: Plant Propagation Presentation
For Plant Propagation Videos check out my YouTube Channel: How to Propagate Plants – Links to plant propagation topic and individual plant posts as well as some basic information on propagating plants.
Making More Salvias!
Propagating Mums for Profit
It’s kind of an odd subject to bring up during spring but propagating mums for profit takes time. Spring is when you have to get started for fall mum sales. For the purposes of this article we are talking about the common chrysanthemum you find…
How to Grow Heucheras (Coral Bells) from Seed
With all the nasty but necessary weather we’ve been having lately it’s been hard to get out in the garden to work. What’s a gardener to do? Talk about the seedlings growing inside! Today I’m going to give you an update on how I am…
I had no idea you could root arborvitae. What a great idea. My arborvitae got a bit crispy in the heat and drought this year. I may need this to start new ones off the one that looks the best. Good luck with all your cuttings.
I have Lemon Geraniums and magenta Coleus that I am going to propagate. Both originally came from cuttings and are doing very well in my Southern California garden!
I am going to try this. Never attempted rooting arborvitae.
I remember being quite excited having successfully intuited and laid out our materials needs and I used Alex’s figures for what we would need concerning labor. I had shopped the plant list, found reasonable soil and compost suppliers and received much praise from the owner for my contribution. I was positively aglow and barely able to contain my enthusiasm for the project.