Around Thanksgiving I took 6 small 4 node cuttings from a single viburnum at my in-law’s house. I don’t know what variety the viburnum but that doesn’t bother me, I can find out when the leaves begin to grow and the flowers start to bloom (which admittedly might be awhile). For now though I’ll just be happy to add six more plants to the garden.
I used rooting hormone when I took the cuttings and only used sand for the medium. I kept the cuttings in a warm and humid environment (our bathroom, my wife just loves this hobby! 😉 The joke around our house is that we truly have a “garden tub” in our bathroom.).
Propagating Plants by Alan Toogood (Am. Aff.) is a good reference manual for propagating all kinds of plants. I have an earlier edition I like to use to figure out what techniques work best with which plant. Not all plants are covered but a lot of good ones are and once you have learned the basic techniques you can experiment for yourself and learn what works to propagate the plants you like to grow.
The first viburnum cutting I noticed rooting had roots about 10-14 days ago but I only recently potted them into pots in soil. That puts the time on rooting viburnums to about 6-7 weeks. I put five of the cuttings in the garage greenhouse (just a set of shelves with a plastic covering). The sixth cutting was starting to emerge with leaves and I felt it best to keep indoors until warmer weather arrives.
Of the six viburnums I rooted five had nice roots starting to emerge from between the bottom two nodes. As you can see in the top picture the cuttings had four nodes that I stuck in sand with two nodes under the sand. The top two nodes and maybe the third node should develop branches and leaves.
After I potted these viburnums and put them in the garage I took the hardwood cuttings I mentioned yesterday. There’s always something you can do in the garden!
How to Propagate a Viburnum
- In fall (semi-ripe to hardwood) take a 3-5 inch viburnum cutting with 2 to 3 nodes.
- Treat the cut end (bottom end) with a dusting of rooting hormone.
- Insert cutting into rooting medium like sand, or sand/peat, or peat/perlite.
- Keep cutting humid until rooting has occurred.
- Give the cutting 3-4 weeks and test it by gently tugging on the cutting. If it has resistance then rooting is probably underway!
- Pot the cutting up in about 6-7 weeks!
TIP: I recommend that you keep the rooted viburnums in pots to take a care of until fall then plant in the ground with protection from deer and rabbits. I’ve had more than a few cuttings destroyed by them!
Different varieties of viburnum can be more difficult than others to root. ‘Arrowwood’ viburnum and ‘Shasta’ offer no trouble but the Korean Spice have proven to be more difficult.
More Posts and Information on Plant Propagation for the Home Garden:
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How exciting! gail
Gail,
Yep! I think so!
Good job Dave. I agree, it's so exciting when you get something to root! I just read your last post too, so true. Sometimes we gardener's make things harder than they have to be. To be able to root and grow a Japanese Maple would be over the top. I'm going to by one of those trees soon.
Good job Dave. You can't have too many viburnums-no matter what kind. I tried to access this post thru Blotanical but it did not work. Just thought I'd let you know.
The Propagate King is always at it! I could not do this in the house as my cats would eat the twigs like candy! I always enjoy seeing the luck you have though…
Why else would it be called a Garden Tub if it were not meant to be a staging area for the propagation of plants?
Just found your site through Gardening Asylum — love it! I'm most interested in your propagation posts & will check them all out. I tried a lot of cuttings last summer and got forsythia & caryopteris to grow (duh!), but had mixed results with many others, including some trees. I want to try again this summer! Looking forward to seeing more of your results.