rooting Rose of Sharon, Camelia, Hydrangea, Angel Trumpet,

Would it be better to use potting soil or vermiculite to root Rose of Sharon, Camelia, Angel Trumpet, Rosemary, Honeysuckle, Acuba? Or in water?
Would Root Hormone be good after 5 years?

This message was edited Jun 22, 2010 8:47 PM

If you find out let me know???

I am trying some rootings in different mediums and have also used the old rooting hormone. So we'll have to wait and see.

Do either of you use Perlite, if so how, just put it in a cup and put a cutting in or add water or what? Seeds just throw them in or add soil and water or what? I hear people use it to root or germinate seeds.

I have not had any luck rooting Rose of Sharon or Camelia. I am trying the Rose of Sharon in soil again now.

Angel's Trumpet has rooted well for me in both water & soil. If you root them in water, be sure to change the water often or they will rot & turn to mush.

I have rooted some Rosemary in soil from cuttings, but don't have very good luck that way. What works great for me with Rosemary is air layering. I do this by wounding the Rosemary a bit where it will be touching the ground (a lower branch) & set a rock on top of it. Can get some nice sized bushes from it quickly that way :)

Honeysuckle rots in water for me, but roots really well in soil.

I tried cuttings in soil once from an Acuba, but it was from a sick one I was trying to save & it didn't work.

I don't know about the rooting hormone. I have only tried the powder kind & don't like it. Seems no matter how much I tap the excess powder off, there is still too much on it & they just die. Have much better luck without the hormone.

The picture is of the Rosemary branch under a brick. It is already rooted & ready to snip from the main plant.

ants

Thanks for the 411 ants.

Helin, I am trying a few different things to see what works best for me. I am trying vermiculite by itself, pottting soil by itself, and a mixture of pine bark fines, spaghnum peat moss and perlite. I didn't think of using straight perlite.
Vermiculite stays too moist in some areas, but in mine and your zones it maybe just right. One thing you might want to try is putting the pots in a plastic bag like you get from the grocery store and loosely tie the top. This may add some humidity if you think you need it. I would make sure the bag had some ventilation and not place it in direct sunlight.
I am not experienced at any of this. So let me know what works for you. And, I will keep you informed, as well.

Read this information - it should answer your questions:

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-8702.html

Thanks, Kay.

Thanks I will copy this link to my blog. I have had some luck with stuff that I disturbed when the roots were still too fragile, directly in the ground and snapped off my rooted plants. That seems to be my worst offense with rooting besides not being able to do it most of the time. I found out that spring and late summer are best for me, but depending on the type of winter I get, they may or may not make it through, if rooted in the soil directly. I do that with my seeds too. I put them in frozen Yogurt cups with clear plastic bubble tops and they do great in those or ice cream containers, since the waxy paper decomposes slowly and hold moisture. I take the center out of the lids and put grocery bags in place of them for light, but they grow well and I never have to disturb them because they root right where I want them to be or I wait till they are well established and divide them later.

Dawn, I used to stick a piece of brug, angel trumpet, in a 6" pot of potting mix, give it some moisture, and put it in one of those orange bags that newspapers were delivered in, blow in it to fill it full of air and moisture, twist the top and tie it, then I would put it under the kneehole of my desk and forget about it. 9 times out of 10 it would root within a few weeks.

Thats wild Jeanette. I will try this.

Let me know if it works. What are you rooting? You know the brugs are solid, or what I would call maybe semi hard. Don't know if it would work on hard wood.

I just got lucky with one, I have a little one I grew from seed that never seems to grow too tall, but I guess I planted a seedling in pot, and it has been growing in a pot with a little rose. I thought it was a sun flower and was going to yank it when I saw this overnight transformation and the big trumpets are going to open soon. OMG! A great surprise. It may have been this one a woman here sent me, now that I think of it. She sent 3 and 2 did not make it, this one I forgot about.

How big is it Dawn? Does it have a name? It will be interesting. Normally they do not grow true to the parent anyway. Actually, they are quite easy to start from seed but don't normally bloom until the second year. At least for us in the cooler climates. How long has it been since germination Dawn?

I don't know the name or color yet, but I think it is white. It is about 2 1/2 feet tall and 2 1/2 wide. This one was a cutting from someone on DG, but the one I planted from seed, did bloom on the second year and has not bloomed yet this year, which is the third. It is in the ground but I read they don't transplant well, so there it stays, dwarfed in heavier soil.

They do transplant good Dawn. I take mine out of the pot, cut the roots back and if I don't have a bigger pot to put them in, I put fresh soil in the one it was in and pot it back in the same one. And, within a month, it is getting a Y, which they need to bloom, so hopefully it will.

No, you cannot pinch them to get the Y. It has to come naturally.

HMMM? Thanks for the info. Do you think it is just in ground that they said they do not like to be disturbed? Have you tried. It was my first one so I did not want to take a chance. I was so happy when I saw it come back. They were not supposed to here, in my wet clay winter this year, I heard. But it was well amended there.

I would leave it if it is doing good. Where were you going to move it to?

I'm leaving it, but it is not growing all crazy like the other one. It dies back in the Winter and takes forever to come back taller there, but it is staying. I think I need to add worms and more compost for better drainage there. It looks a little yellow, as in too much water or not enough drainage.

I threw out germinated Datura seeds and only one popped up. I hate that.

One year I grew a blackberry swirl dat in a raised bed and used a lot of compost and steer manure etc. That baby grew about 6 feet tall and that wide at the top, branches everywhere and every joint had blooms. When they started growing seed pods I never thought about it until it was almost too late. One day the light bulb turned on in the old brain and I jumped up and ran out there with a bag and pulled all of those seed pods off of it.

Can you just imagine the mess I would have had if those pods had broken open out there? Each pod has a hundred or more seeds. LOL, I would have had a forest of those things growing the next year.

Dawn, do you know MaVieRose? She lives there in the high desert somewhere like it sounds you do. She grows them in the ground. Not sure but she probably amends her soil real good. If you know her, ask her what she does. Come to think of it, I think she said all she puts on hers is alfalfa tea. In fact I just got a bag of alfalfa pellets to make some tea for my brugs. Keep forgetting to do it. Got that on my to do list right after getting Sharon's plants ready to go.

I do know her and even have her email address. She told me she got sick and all her plants died and she was giving up on gardening. lol

I have not talked to her in a while, though once in a while she sends me a forward and vise a versa. I have black berries in containers that rooted in ground but they barely grew and only have a few berries. I used to buy the alphalfa pellets with molasses for tea and then I started amending my soil with it, to encourage worms. She lives almost in the same climate and area as me, though about 45 min to an hour east of me. Near my h's job. She is on the way to Vegas more or less. Funny you know her. I have not seen her on here for a long time.

I don't have blackberries. That was the color of the datura.

Everyone on Dave's knows MaVie.

I would love some seeds of that color though. Mine is white and mostly I see white growing in the desert. some are a tinge of purple/blueish/white.

Dawn, the double or triple yellows are gorgeous. My problem with them is that when they bloom the rain gets in them and ruins the flowers. They would be beautiful in your area.

Do you have any seeds? Want to trade seeds? I need to ask when they bloom because mine did last year, but I don't know when and it has not yet?

I will check my datura seeds to see if I have any left. How long is your growing season? I have to start them in Aprl to get them to bloom by July or August. I can't tell you when they bloom. I suppoe it depends on your weather.

We treat dats as annuals up here. I don't want to trade seeds. If I have any, you can have them. I don't want any more seeds of anything right now.. Thanks anyway.

I will let you know.

Ok thanks. Our growing season here is long. I can winter sow in the first or second week in Feb. Plant stuff in Sept, Oct. and some stuff in ground in March. It goes till about Thanksgiving and some stuff till the first freeze in mid Dec.