The cutting bug is back, being spring and all. Everywhere I look I see another propagation project awaiting me. Some projects I’ve done before like the chrysanthemums and others are new experiments like the crape myrtles. Here’s what I did this Wednesday!
- Cut the grass! OK you may not have expected that one, but technically it IS a cutting.
- Butterfly Bush cuttings. I think they are ‘Black Knight’ cuttings but I don’t know for sure. I made 7 or 8 cuttings total.
- Crape myrtle cuttings. I took greenwood cuttings from a suckering crape myrtle. I’ve never done the crape myrtle before with cuttings but I think I stand a good chance of success. We’ll see! there are 12 of them in all.
- Sedum cuttings. I took two branches of what I think is an ‘Autumn Joy’ sedum. With sedum you can just drop them in a jar of water since they root easily .
- Chocolate mint cuttings. The mint already had plenty of roots and I just planted it in a pot. Always remember to plant mint in pots. Remember. Always remember to plant mint in pots! Chocolate mint is great for flavoring a good ole southern classic…iced tea! I bet it would be good in some homemade ice cream.
- Rosemary cuttings. Some of the rosemary branches were cuttings and some had already rooted through self-layering. Now where’s that rabbit…
- I also checked my Russian sage cuttings and found that they had rooted. A couple more days and I’ll pot them up and let them grow.
- I made some chrysanthemum cuttings about two weeks ago and checked them today. All but two of the 21 had significant roots. One of those I threw away, the other was starting to root so I potted it up with the other 19. Time to go get some more cuttings. Since mums are supposed to be pinched back until July I just take what I cut off and root it. When you consider that the stores sell them for $5-$6 each, I may have just saved $100 or more by making those cuttings. Just watch for the patents again, quite a few of the mums have patents on them.
That’s about it for Wednesday. I tinkered in the garden with the irrigation a little but I’ll save that for another time.
Ah, the cuttings. It is so nice to make free plants.
Excellent work! You just have to love it when plants “reproduce” themselves, either by self-seeding or cuttings. Mucho $$ saved!
With all these cuttings, do you have a greenhouse to keep them in?
Skeeter,
No, he has no greenhouse. He has a garage with no cars in it and a grow light rigged up. 🙂
Jenny
Cute Jenny! LOL
And a great wife who tolerates a gardening habit. It could be worse, I could like golf! 😉
You know most Americans have junk/stuff in their garages not plants. I like plants better than junk/stuff!
Gail
LOL.. oh Dave if I took you to see the Masters golf tourney, you may get the bug to take up golf! I was thinking about that garage and if it contained cars or not…