When is the time to try to root camellias?

OK I can't spell.LOL
I am in Raleigh this week. It is gonna cost and arm and 4 legs to get high speed internet at our place on the coast. Dial up takes about 2 minutes per page to load and if there is a picture longer. Only draw back I have to living there, other than that its paradise.
I want some camellia bushes and I have 4 in Raleigh I want to take cuttings of and try to root. Is there any special time of the year to try to do this?

Lavina

This message was edited Jan 16, 2008 12:11 PM

Late spring from new growth. Air layering is probably the easiest way to go. I've had no luck rooting camellias and many others haven't either. If you do a scearch there are a some long posts on this subject.

I have been able to root cuttings in late Spring or early summer when I do some pruning of these bushes. Mine bloom is early Spring.

I keep several gallon size containers that I put old dirt in when I repot potted pants. I remove all but the top 4 or 5 leaves and stick them all the way into the bottom of the pots. I set them in a shady place and keep them watered. I do the same with Lady Banks roses. It works well for me. I am in zone 7.

I've never tried this, but my grandmother (Zone 8a) had great success with her method. She was able to root camellias, magnolias, and gardenias using this method.

She had an area along the eave of the house where rain water ran down the roof and onto the ground. The area had good soil underneath and a layer of 1/2in or so of sand on top. She would take cuttings about 8" or so long, strip the lower leaves leaving only 2-3 small leaves at the top, push the stem a few inches into the ground, and cover with a clean quart jar. The area where she did this was on the north side of the house where it received bright light but no direct sun. The jar would probably build up to much heat if exposed to sun; otherwise, the jar makes a small greenhouse which keeps the humidity high around the cutting. She would check them from time to time and when well rooted would dig them up to be transplanted to pots or beds elsewhere.

As i said, I've never tried this but I watched her dig up countless rooted cuttings from that spot over the years.

Has anyone ever tried grafting? Never tried it myself but I am told it works well and is not that difficult. The upside is that you get a blooming size plant much sooner. I was told to use a seedling camellia or buy a cheap, young plant to use for the rootstock and graft my favorite cuttings onto it. One of these days..........

One of the neighbors has a bush with red one side and pink the other,Said his Dad grafted them together. Its neat.

I saw a tree grafting kit at Agri Supply. It looked simple.

Lavina

Grafting, hmmmm. doesn't sound like a bad idea.

Scutler, You have a smart Grandmother. I bet she could teach us alot about gardening. I've also seen this method used by using a pot with sand and peat moss mixture. Place the cutting in as you described and put pot in a sealed ziploc bag.

BSD,

Yes, Grandma was one of those people for whom things just seemed to work. I recall that my Mom used to try to do the same thing and it would fail.

That ziplock bag idea sounds handy. It would be easier to vent when necessary. I read (Garden Gate tips, I think) that those zippered clear plastic cases comforters and sheets often come in make good miniature greenhouses, too, for starting seeds and cuttings. Some, especially the ones for king comforter sets, are big enough to hold all manner of trays and such.

I cooked a couple of plants last year using 2 liter bottles. Once we get into June outside is pretty much hot humid all the time so I'm not even going to fool around with any "mini greenhouses". I'm determined now to get a camellia to root. Don't really need another one but now it's just a do because I should beable to.

Scutler
What a great idea with the zippered conforter bags !! I knew I'd find some use for them one day.
Core, we mean now, not when the weather warms up. Try it now and see if it want work for you. There is nothing in any type of greenhouse after April in our area. Starts getting kinda warm here.

Can't do it with hardwood, can you?

Just ran across this article on propagating camellias: http://www.southeasterncamellias.com/Articles%20and%20Info/Propagating%20camellias%20for%20the%20beginner.pdf
Available free to public for limited time. Rembered your thread and thought I would share this.

I have had success taking semi ripe cuttings on sasanquas this time of year and putting them in my coldframe (located on the north side of the house) with bottom heat and rooting hormones. It typically takes 4 months to develop roots , at which time I pot them up and keep them in a shady area til fall when they get planted out or traded off. Try to take your cuttings from the healthiest of this years growth shoots.

I've had good luck with a 5 gallon bucket, !/3 filled with Builder's sand and some perlite. Drilled some holes in the bottom for drainage, and soaked the concoction thoroughly. Take 20-30 semi hardwood cuttings in late spring/early summer, dip them in rooting hormone, stick them in the bucket, cover the top with plastic wrap, seal the plastic with a bunge cord, and put them out in the woods (or any totally shaded) location. Then forget about them for 3 months. Three to four months after planting, retrieve the bucket, pull off the plastic moisture seal and GENTLY flood the bucket with water. When the water is visible above the sand, slowly and GENTLY tip the bucket over on it's side. The sand and water will pour out, along with some very healthy rooted cuttings. Because they're so wet, it's relatively easy to disentangle their roots. Pot the rooted cuttings in 1 gallon pots for growing out.

What a cool idea.

Not exactly the "professional" way to propogate Camellias, ardesia, but it sure worked for me. Twenty seven of the 30 cuttings I planted had rooted. Of the 27, 25 made it through "Year 1" in the pots. They're in the ground now, and doing fine. Sometimes I think we plant people "fuss too much"... Going to have to try it again this year...need some more Camellias! Beginner's luck??? I'll let you know. My "experiment" was with japonica's, but I need both this year, so I'll be doing both. Who knows? Ain't it fun?

Well Stono I will give that a try this year. The camellia thing is getting personal now. Don't really need any more but I'm sure I can give them away and it's just something I have to do successfully now. LOL. Who knows doing that may work for other not so easy to root plants.

Core, how did those big transplants you got from the old house in Bluffton do for you?

Surpisingly the biggest looks the best. It's got to be 15 ft at least. I dug up two that were around four ft and those look fine. The two that were around 10-12ft are looking half alive and half dead. I'll have to see what happens this spring and cut off the dead parts. Those two had really good shapes so I'm not to happy but the price was right. That whole area is my project for this year. Fruit orchard last year, shady area this year. Next year or maybe this year I'll work on the jungle part. LOL. I think I have another two years till the major plants and trees are in planted and decent size.

Wow, if a 15 footer made it you did good!

scutler,

I ran across the link to rooting camelias a couple of days ago, and wanted to thank you for sharing that with us! I had been doing a hit or miss type of rooting (no rooting powder) and my success rate was limited. I feel like I will have better luck if I follow the instructions on this link!

I am learning so much since I joined Dave's!

Thanks again,

Pat