my first hydrangea cutting experiment

Pretty in purple

Meet the new guys "beni gaku" and "harelquin" and a blue all lacecaps

And more!!!

Good job, everyone!

Just did 7 Mariesii variegated hydrangea cuttings.

I just put two variegated cuttings in perlite yesterday and hope SO MUCH that they do well. It's a lace top but don't know the actual name of the plant, my husband brought me the branch and I cut it up. Anything varigated I love. Thank you Pirl, are yours just going in to be rooted or are they done Pirl? Do you have pictures of yours? You're going to have a LOT of plants there OutlawHeart, let us know what they look like when you get them all planted. Don't you just love it!

I got a big kick out of the perlite attached to the roots and, before I enlarged the photo, thought they were flowers heads - very unusual flower heads.

Yesterday I noticed a broken branch of the hydrangea at a nursery so I picked it up and then cut it up. Now it's potted (7 cuttings) and I came inside for a label.

I have to remember to take photos of the Callicarpa cuttings! Cuttings of another hydrangea, Tokyo Delight, already has all new growth. I took them back in late April or early May. It's much too addictive!

Addictive, but doesn't have to be expensive, which is why I had to learn about cuttings and seed starting. I hate to spend money! Give me the DIY channel over the shopping channels any day! If someone shows me what they bought my brain says "Okay, how can I make that, only cheaper?" or if I see something in the store I like I wonder how I can make it myself? And that's so much more enjoyable than just buying everything. And watching things grow, it's priceless....and totally addictive! For very little money, in two years my front yard went from bare to this...I love it!

Marvelous. It's really so welcoming.

Very pretty dirt lover! I'm the same way! At the nursery I haunt they are selling pairs of these moss ball planters with succulents shaped like turtles with cute names like Archie and Ethel, Lucy and Ricky. But I've made kokedame before cause I'm blessed with a shady yard full of moss so that's my next project! I can't wait to get started on "Samantha and Darren" ;)
This is the original cutting that looks the worst. I'm gonna wait till he's really down for the count before I give up on him though.

You will not hurt the cutting if you gently remove it to check for roots and then replace it and firm the soil around it.

Now I have to Google Kokedama! I have lots and lots of all kinds of mosses.

Here's a picture of two orbs I made with spider plants and moss. Wrapped the finished product in ivy that is taking over the yard then crocheted some pretty yarn into a hanger for them. It's kinda windy, there's another storm kicking up, so sorry if this pic is a little blurry.

Even The two little Bitty leaves are still going!! It's been almost 3 weeks! :D

This one is the best. The leaf looks like a heart and it's all curvy and crooked. But I love it.

So is it weird I'm nicknaming my cuttings this one is Superman...LOL it looks to me like it's little leaves are stretched out flying. LOL who needs imaginary friends when you have plants? %)

Hopefully he'll take off

Cute! I'd be in trouble trying to name mine and be loonier than I am.

LOL I feel looney! I spend too much time out there with them lol

Callicarpa cuttings are growing and have new leaves - joy to the world.

Here are the others.

Took cuttings of Rhododendron today for the first time.

Wonderful, Pirl, I hope we're all successful. So far so good with mine.

Yours look great, Dirtlover!

These are the variegated Mariesii cuttings. You can spot the white edge on the half leaf at the upper right.

OK... earlier on my lunch break I tried posting to ask how long I should wait for roots before I get worried. Well for some reason it kept giving me those error messages saying the page can't be located.
so I got home and I just couldn't Help myself.


:D ask and thou shall receive! I have small roots on two and a big clump on one. & New growth on the simple stem with a node.
*happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me!..* OK, it's not till tuesday LOL don't want to keep confusing poor pirl! ;)
yay!
I'd also like to report that all the newcomers ate looking good too! Only a few drooping and I like to think all this humidity and rain is really helping since they are safe in the greenhouse with only slight covering from the sun, that we haven't seen much of these days!

Good job, Outlaw! So glad to hear you have some roots. We all need confidence builders and you have them.

Picture time!!! :) today i brought my phone/camera to the greenhouse to water.
Surprises galore!
So far I've only lost one from the original bunch, and one beni gaku. But when i lost a beni i decided to move a more crowded plant to the other spot stone in a pot, & guess what!

The urge to check a few more was at that point completely overwhelming. :) and that's what i did.
There is a blue one that rooted too :)

Of the original bunch the most impressive is this set of leaves. No stem, just two leaves from the top of a stem. This epic success got me thinking, maybe this Hydrangea rooting business is as simple as say growing weeds, & I'm the only one who didn't know it! But this little success proves anyone can root them, now lets see how many make it through winter....

This one was a piece of stem one node. :)

I'm so very happy for you. The roots will develop all along the stem (just like coleus cuttings) and when you look at the roots again in a month or two you'll be stunned.

Some people give such dire predictions for hydrangea cuttings taken at any time other than June or July but I've done it from March to November with great success.

Keep up the good work! You're doing great.


Someone in the northwest sent me many cuttings (all rooted) in December of 2005. Here's one - a variegated lacecap, Mariesii - photo taken February 2006. Next I'll post a photo I took last week of the same cutting, now a lush plant.

Now it's 3' wide and 3.5' tall.

That is beautiful. Did you ever have to prune cuttings to get them to be more bush like (preventing apical dominance, learned that here on DG!)
Yesterday at the plant cycle meeting we did rhododendron cuttings. I made two so i hope at least one will make it!

I'll try and take a better photo of Mariesii. Thanks.

Yes, I cut off the tip of every cutting I take to insure apical dominance does not prevail. Good for you for absorbing what you read. You really will have fabulous gardens.

Guilt! I still have the 60 rhododendron cuttings in water, which I do change about every other day. It's just too hot!

Hmmm... Since i have so many to experiment with, maybe i won't cut the top off and see if i can't create a Hydrangea tree. Lol
it's way too hot today. I have so many things to plant from yesterday though. The plant swap was awesome! Just a few people showed up and most have really well established gardens so me and another new guy got tons of stuff! There was still so much left over. I fully admit to hosing myself several times today, and drinking from the hose! :D

I'm eager to hear what you do with them in the winter. I tried this last year and they looked great, but did not survive our Chicago winter. I mulched them, but did not cover them--perhaps that was the fatal mistake. I'm about to try a batch so you've inspired me!

Outlaw - to create a tree you have to pinch the top and remove all side growth. The top keeps getting fuller and fuller and you keep pinching it after every second set of leaves.

Ann - could you pot them up and protect them in a garage or on the warmest exposure you have?

I'm so glad to hear it! You getshould at least try this once or try, try again, till you get it to work for you. I recommend it highly!
Good luck with your project. :)