The secret of growing landscape plants from cuttings can be summed
up in two words. “Timing and technique”. When you do your
cuttings is every bit as important as how you do them. So if you
do the right thing, at the right time of the year, your efforts
are sure to bring success. Through this article you will learn both.
Hardwood Cuttings of Deciduous Plants
Hardwood cuttings are much more durable than softwood cuttings
which is why hardwoods are the best technique for the home gardener.
A deciduous plant is a plant that loses it’s leaves during
the winter. All plants go dormant during the winter, but evergreens
keep their foliage. Many people don’t consider Rhododendrons,
Azaleas, and and Mountain Laurel evergreens, but they are. They
are known as broad leaf evergreens. Any plant that completely loses
it’s leaves is a deciduous plant.
There are two different ways to do hardwood cuttings of deciduous
plants. Is one better than the other? It depends on exactly what
you are rooting, what the soil conditions are at your house, and
what Mother Nature has up her sleeve for the coming winter. I have
experienced both success and failure using each method. Only experimentation
will determine what works best for you. Try some cuttings using
each method.
When doing hardwood cuttings of deciduous plants, you should wait
until the parent plants are completely dormant. This does not happen
until you’ve experienced a good hard freeze where the temperature
dips down below 32 degrees F. for a period of several hours. Here
in northeastern Ohio this usually occurs around mid November.
Method Number One
Unlike softwood cuttings of deciduous plants, where you only take
tip cuttings from the ends of the branches, that rule does not apply
to hardwood cuttings of deciduous plants.
For instance, a plant such as Forsythia can grow as much as four
feet in one season. In that case, you can use all of the current
years growth to make hardwood cuttings. You might be able to get
six or eight cuttings from one branch.
Grapes are extremely vigorous. A grape vine can grow up to ten
feet or more in one season. That entire vine can be used for hardwood
cuttings. Of course with grape vines, there is considerable space
between the buds, so the cuttings have to be much longer than most
other deciduous plants. The average length of a hardwood grape vine
cutting is about 12” and still only has 3 or 4 buds. The bud
spacing on most other deciduous plants is much closer, so the cuttings
only need to be about 6-8” in length.
Making a deciduous hardwood cutting is quite easy. Just collect
some branches (known as canes) from the parent plants. Clip these
canes into cuttings about 6” long. Of course these canes will
not have any leaves on them because the plant is dormant, but if
you examine the canes closely you will see little bumps along the
cane. These bumps are bud unions. They are next year’s leaf
buds or nodes, as they are often called.
When making a hardwood cutting of a deciduous plant it is best
to make the cut at the bottom, or the butt end of the cutting just
below a node, and make the cut at the top of the cutting about 3/4”
above a node.
This technique serves two purposes. One, it makes it easier for
you to distinguish the top of the cutting from the bottom of the
cutting as you handle them. It also aids the cutting in two different
ways.
Any time you cut a plant above a node, the section of stem left
above that node will die back to the top node. So if you were to
leave 1/2” of stem below the bottom node, it would just die
back anyway. Having that section of dead wood underground is not
a good idea. It is only a place for insects and disease to hide.
It is also helpful to actually injure a plant slightly when trying
to force it to develop roots. When a plant is injured, it develops
a callous over the wound as protection.
This callous build up is necessary before roots will develop. Cutting
just below a node on the bottom of a cutting causes the plant to
develop callous and eventually, roots.
Making the cut on the top of the cutting 3/4” above the node
is done so that the 3/4” section of stem above the node will
provide protection for the top node. This keeps the buds from being
damaged or knocked off during handling and planting. You can press
down on the cutting without harming the buds. Although not necessary,
it helps to make the cut at the top of the cutting at an angle.
This sheds water away from the cut end of the cutting and helps
to reduce the chance of disease.
Once you have all of your cuttings made, dip them in a rooting
compound. Make sure you have the right strength rooting compound
(available at most garden stores) for hardwood cuttings.
Line them up so the butt ends are even and tie them into bundles.
Select a spot in your garden that is in full sun. Dig a hole about
12” deep and large enough to hold all of the bundles of cuttings.
Place the bundles of cuttings in the hole upside down. The butt
ends of the cuttings should be up. The butt ends of the cuttings
should be about 6” below the surface. Cover the cuttings completely
with soil and mark the
location with a stake, so you can find them again in the spring.
It is beneficial to cover the butt ends with moist peat moss before
filling in the hole.
Over the winter the cuttings will develop callous and possibly
some roots. Placing them in the hole upside down puts the butt ends
closest to the surface, so they can be warmed by the sun, creating
favorable conditions for root development. Being upside down also
discourages top growth.
Leave them alone until about mid spring after the danger of frost
has passed. Over the winter the buds will begin to develop and will
be quite tender when you dig them
up. Frost could do considerable damage if you dig them and plant
them out too early. That’s why it is best to leave them buried
until the danger of frost has passed.
Dig them up very carefully, so as not to damage them. Cut open
the bundles and examine the butt ends. Hopefully, you will see some
callous build up. Even if there is no callous, plant them out anyway.
You don’t need a bed of sand or anything special when you
plant the cuttings out. Just put them in a sunny location in your
garden. Of course the area you chose should be well drained, with
good rich topsoil.
To plant the cuttings, just dig a very narrow trench, or using
a spade, make a slice by prying open the ground. Place the cuttings
in the trench with the butt ends down. Bury about one half of the
cutting leaving a few buds above ground. Back fill around the cuttings
with loose soil making sure there are no air pockets. Tamp them
in lightly. Water them on a regular basis, but don’t make the
soil so wet that they rot.
Within a few weeks the cuttings will start to leaf out. Some will
more than likely collapse because there are not enough roots to
support the plant. The others will develop roots as they leaf out.
By fall, the cuttings that survived should be pretty well rooted.
You can transplant them once they are dormant, or you can wait until
spring. If you wait until spring, make sure you transplant them
before they break dormancy.
Method Number Two
When using the second method for rooting hardwood cuttings of
deciduous plants you do everything exactly the same as you do with
method number one, up to the point where you bury them for the winter.
With method number two you don’t bury them at all. Instead,
you plant the cuttings out as soon as you make them in the late
fall, or anytime during the winter when the ground is not frozen.
In other words, you just completely skip the step where you bury
the cuttings underground for the winter.
Plant them exactly the same way as described for method number
one. As with all cuttings, treating them with a rooting compound
prior to planting will help induce root growth.
Hardwood cuttings work fairly well for most of the deciduous shrubs.
However, they are not likely to work for some of the more refined
varieties of deciduous ornamentals like Weeping Cherries or other
ornamental trees.
Hardwood Cuttings of Evergreens
Hardwood cuttings of evergreens are usually done after you have
experienced two heavy frosts in the late fall, around mid November
or so. However, I have obtained good results with some plants doing
them as early as mid September, taking
advantage of the warmth of the fall sun. When doing them is early,
they need to be watered everyday. Try some cuttings early and if
they do poorly, just do some more in November.
Hardwood cuttings of many evergreens can be done at home in a
simple frame filled with course sand. To make such a frame, just
make a square or rectangular frame using 2” by 6” boards.
Nail the four corners together as if to make a large picture frame.
This frame should sit on top of the ground in an area that is well
drained. An area of partial shade is preferred.
Once you have the frame constructed remove any weeds or grass
inside the frame so this vegetation does not grow up through your
propagation bed. Fill this frame with a very coarse grade of sand.
This frame must be well drained, and coarse sand drains very well.
Fine sands do not drain well at all. Standing water is sure to seriously
hamper your results.
Making the evergreen cuttings is easy. Just clip a cutting 4-5
inches in length from the parent plant. Make tip cuttings only.
(Only one cutting from each branch.) Strip the needles or leaves
from the bottom one half to two thirds of the cutting. Wounding
evergreen cuttings isn’t usually necessary because removing
the leaves or needles causes enough injury for callous build up
and root development.
Dip the butt ends of the cuttings in a powder or liquid rooting
compound and stick them in the sand about 3/4” to 1” apart.
Keep them watered throughout the fall until cool temperatures set
in. Start watering again in the spring and throughout the summer.
They don’t need a lot of water, but be careful not to let them
dry out, and at the same time making sure they are not soaking wet.
Hardwood cuttings of many evergreens will root this way, but it
does take some time. You should leave them in the frame for a period
of twelve months. You can leave them longer if you like. Leaving
them until the following spring would be just fine. They should
develop more roots over the winter.
This method of rooting hardwood cuttings can and will work well
for variegated Euonymus varieties, Taxus, Juniper, Arborvitae, Japanese
Holly, Boxwood, and English Holly. Rhododendrons and Azaleas prefer
to have their bottoms warmed
before they root.
If you have questions for Mike McGroarty visit his website, http://www.freeplants.com
and post them on the message board where you can learn lots of gardening
tips and communicate with other gardeners. While at his website
you can learn how to start your own profitable backyard nursery.
If you would like a copy of Mike’s booklet, “The Secret
of Growing Landscape Plants from Scratch”, send $4.00 to: Garden
Secrets, P.O. Box 338, Perry, Ohio 44081
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