flowering quince cuttings

I was given some flowering quince cuttings, they grow like crazy here on the Eastern Shore but can't find any at the nurseries. What is the best way to get these babies to grow: water until they root, root booster and starter soil, OR just stick them in the ground and water them? Please help, I have waited years for these plants. Thanks, Pam

Pamspace, I looked up flowering quince in my Propagation Book by Alan Toogood. this is what he says, Hardwoodcuttings of these deciduous shrubs produce a large plant more quickly than other methods, usually in 2 to 3 years. Spreading forms are easy to layer and that should be done in late winter and hardwood cuttings are done in fall or midwinter. Softwood or greenwood cuttings in late spring to early summer.

If you are trying to start the branches you have I would certainly recommend a rooting hormone like Dip n'Grow, which is liquid and then stick them into the ground somewhere out of the direct sunlight and be sure to keep moist for the summer. Good Luck.

dear lenjo,

Thanks for the information, I will follow your instructions to the letter.

Pam

I hope you have wonderful luck, I would like to get this started myself; I see there are many named cultivars too. Usually around here I only see a couple in the nurseries.

Here's an additional question. There are many suckers on my flowering quince since it doesn't have a single trunk. I am assuming that I can just dig up some of the individual stems and replant them in another area. If this is true, how many should I put in one area, and should they all go into one hole?

This is the quince. It is currently about 20 ft tall.

This is what the stems (multi stem trunk) look like up close.

I took cuttings just before the flowers fell off and dipped in rooting hormone and put in potting soil. They all look pretty rough, but there are some bright green leaves coming on.

I also dug up some volunteers a week or two later leaving some dirt on the roots to bring home. Potted them up in potting soil. Some look dead, and the others look rough too, but do have some green leaves growing.

I agree with Lenjo about keeping them out of direct sunlight and keep moist. I think mine got too hot too often in the greenhouse. Should have had them outside in the shade.

Do you think that I would be better off potting them instead of immediately putting into them back into the garden? I moving them to the other side of my backyard.

I do think your first season would need extra water and shadier wouldn't hurt. Sounds like you have had success, msrobin with your cuttings. Congratulations, that is always a great accomplishment. Joann

Thanks, Joanne! I consider myself very lucky if I get 50% rooted. Our philosophy with our ornamental plants, trees and bushes around here are they need to get tough very quickly and to fend for themselves when we aren't available to nurture them along. If they survive through the rooting process, they are off to a wonderful start! I've got so much going on and trying to keep up with all the yard and garden chores, that I haven't had the time to devote to making sure cuttings are well-tended.

May i add to this? I have a truly massive old flowering quince on my property, and, well, with a monster like this, experimenting with cuttings and such has been almost impossible to resist. I've found the thing really difficult to start, though there are suckers coming up all over the yard, they don't like being dug up and replanted. I've found that digging down to the roots of a sucker and wounding it about where you'd cut it off and then leaving it in the ground for about a month will naturally produce roots on the sucker, you can then dig up a fairly nice little bush and repot it.

This should be able to be accelerated by pouring on one of these new root stimulators. Might shorten the time it would take to produce a good root system. I suppose any fert. with a big middle number could be used as well. Then, when digging up your new little bush, it would probably be wise to give it a good haircut so it can concentrate on forrming roots instead of trying to support and extensive system of branches and leaves.

Finally, I'd say that if you were going to try to root a cutting, I'd use Powdered Rootone F, the rooting hormone meant for HARD WOOD CUTTINGS to get them going. It's hard to get a good soft wood cutting off my bush at least.

Melis

Hello, Hello....welcome to Dave's Garden!

Great technique for volunteers! I'll have to try that!

Robin

Thanks for the welcome. What a great place, great concentration of knowledge and experience! Nice to know I'm not the only plant-obsessed person around here.

Has anyone tried forcing quince in the late winter? It could pass for apple or cherry blossoms, just beautiful pale pink, instead of the usual vibrant red. Just cut it and bring it into the warmth and it puts on quite a show.

Melis

Forsythia does this too, doesn't it? Welcome,Melis!!! If you ever get an extra rooted cutting of your quince, I would be happy to pay postage to get one. Another shrub I would like to add is kerria japonica.

Melissande,

Welcome to Daves Garden and thanks for sharing your experience.

I am going to try both ways this weekend because I'm impatient. I will dig up a half dozen of the suckers and transplant them, and then I will also just try slightly cutting a few to see if it will root. I may even try just putting a few in water to see if I can get them to root that way as well.

Lord knows that I have plenty of suckers to play with.

There was a pretty vigorous discussion over in the 'I FOUND THE SECRET!' thread about rooting things in plain water that's being aerated by a common aquarium pump fitted up with clear tubing and an air stone, sometimes called a bubbler. As I understand it, what this does is keep anaerobic bacteria from attacking the cutting before it gets the chance to root. You could add this technique to your experiments to see if you can propagate quince, I think I'd add a dip in a rooting hormone to that formula, since woody stuff's harder to start in water than soft wood. It was also mentioned in that same thread that willow exudes a natural form of rooting hormone, so apparently it helps stimulate rooting.

Melis

Thanks, I'll have to give it a try. I don't think those pumps and airstones are very expensive.