Forum home› Plants
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Hydrangea Broken

rowlandscastle444rowlandscastle444 Posts: 2,612
in Plants
An animal (I assume) has broken off some parts of our hydrangea, that we planted last year. Can I use the bits for cuttings?
«1

Posts

  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    You might as well give it a go😊
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • rowlandscastle444rowlandscastle444 Posts: 2,612
    I've rescued what I hope are three non-woody possibilities, and much to the despair of my OH, have tucked them in a pot with the chard!!
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Try a bit in water too. You never know...
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • rowlandscastle444rowlandscastle444 Posts: 2,612
    @B3
    My attempts to save any of the broken pieces, failed miserably.
    My father could take a dozen cuttings, and every one of them would produce a new plant. In all the years I have been trying, not a single cutting has survived more than a couple of weeks - normally very dead in days.
    I've tried soil, compost, water, and mixtures. I've followed my Dad's instructions, Monty Don's ideas, and I've never had success.

    One day!? Maybe?
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    Did you cut the leaves down when you tried your hydrangea cuttings. Put them round the edge of a small ish pot and put a plastic bag or cut down pop bottle over the top to keep moisture in. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • rowlandscastle444rowlandscastle444 Posts: 2,612
    Lyn said:
    Did you cut the leaves down when you tried your hydrangea cuttings. Put them round the edge of a small ish pot and put a plastic bag or cut down pop bottle over the top to keep moisture in. 
    Yes, to cutting down the leaves.
    Yes, to putting them round the edge of a small pot (terracotta).
    Yes, to putting a plastic bag over.

    And yes, to being impatient with them, expecting them to "doing" something!!
    They keeled over, and it was clear that the experiment hadn't worked.
    How come Monty Don and so many others succeed, where I have failed over the past thirty-something years?
    Okay, so I know that there's lots of things I CAN do, so shouldn't get so frustrated.
    🤯
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    It’s always difficult giving someone advice without seeing what they’ve actually got.
    I wouldn’t use a clay pot,  they soak up the water as soon as you water them.
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • rowlandscastle444rowlandscastle444 Posts: 2,612
    Lyn said:
    It’s always difficult giving someone advice without seeing what they’ve actually got.
    I wouldn’t use a clay pot,  they soak up the water as soon as you water them.
    I'm sorry @Lyn
    I wasn't criticising - or at least, it wasn't intended.
     I recognise that anyone outside the situation needs to clarify that the basics have been done.
    Interesting about the terracotta pot - I'd assumed they were the better option. Perhaps that's where I have been going wrong, all these years. 
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    Terracotta is best.  It allows air to reach the roots.  That's why you are advised to plant around and in contact with the edge.  Plain water is OK but slower.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    rowlandscastle444 said:
    Lyn said:
    It’s always difficult giving someone advice without seeing what they’ve actually got.
    I wouldn’t use a clay pot,  they soak up the water as soon as you water them.
    I'm sorry @Lyn
    I wasn't criticising - or at least, it wasn't intended.
     I recognise that anyone outside the situation needs to clarify that the basics have been done.
    Interesting about the terracotta pot - I'd assumed they were the better option. Perhaps that's where I have been going wrong, all these years. 
    No problem,  Rowland,  just that I’ve been taking hydrangea cuttings for many years,  got  about 60 in the garden,  and that’s the way I do them.   We all do things differently
    you’ll get the hang of it one day.🙂. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

Sign In or Register to comment.