Missed the demonstration by Monty, but I have a big patch of red stemmed Cornus, and a couple of rather damp areas I’d like to plant it in. What do I need to do?
I cut a 6 foot long wayward stem off my variegated cornus a few weeks ago and just stuck it straight in the ground. It has rooted and is flowering. It looks like a small tree😀 I also used a straggly stem I had trimmed off a Philadelphus to support an Iris as it had just the right curve on it. That also started sprouting buds but it's too soon to say if that has worked yet. Lots of bits of Roses stuck in all round my garden and seem to be growing nicely. It's strange though if I try and do proper cuttings I have a 95% failure rate.
Sambuccas nigra has worked for me. After successfully growing a clematis tangutica from a bit stolen from overhanging next door I have been making cuttings from all sorts of pruning. Only problem is that I don't have the room to plant them in my garden so I'll be looking for homes for them.
Wow, this all sounds great! Out to the garden this week, I’ll add this to my pruning jobs. Last year, I trimmed a huge laurel hedge by hand, but didn’t get round to collecting up all the branches. When I finally did, I found that quite a lot of them, which had been lying on the ground among the fallen beech leaves, had started to sprout. Ill have a go at the cornus and a forsythia.
@Angelicant - your cornus stem will be running on energy stored within and will take all summer to root. Letting it flower and produce lots of leaves will increase the likelihood of it running out of energy and dying. Much better to cut into pencil lengths and do several to improve chances of success.
I've also done lavender as cuttings in the open ground, in Autumn, and left alone until early summer the following year. (Free draining semi shaded spot).
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour".
Worth trying with bushy salvia too. A two foot bit of Royal Bumble had broken off a bush. I shoved it in a pot outside and forgot about it. And some weeks later, bingo, I found I had a big, new rooted plant. Salvia prunings that fall around the main plant sometimes take on their own and now I have new shoots coming up in my patio paving by accident.
I did this by accident with forsythia, but it also worked with chanomeles (flowering quince), a climbing hydrangea, hebe, and some other things that I don't remember. I have a giant pot that I wanted to part fill with something to save on compost, so I put in a bunch of what I thought were dead sticks from cutting the hedge. One of them sprouted and now I have a small philadelphus in the pot.
There are also quite a few that you can 'layer' which is similar thing but you pin a branch to the ground that is still attached to the mother plant, rather than taking a cutting, and it will root where it's on the ground. Once it's growing you can cut it off and move it elsewhere if you want to - or just leave it and make a hedge. Beech, lonicera nitida and lonicera fragrantissima will all take this way. And brambles.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
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Ill have a go at the cornus and a forsythia.
@Ergates - catch up on i-Player while you can.
There are also quite a few that you can 'layer' which is similar thing but you pin a branch to the ground that is still attached to the mother plant, rather than taking a cutting, and it will root where it's on the ground. Once it's growing you can cut it off and move it elsewhere if you want to - or just leave it and make a hedge. Beech, lonicera nitida and lonicera fragrantissima will all take this way. And brambles.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”