Cutting back Monarda - will these cuttings root?

Hi kids!

I am getting ready to cut my Monarda back, and I got wondering if the cuttings would root? I figured you peeps would know for sure. Not that I need more of the varieties I have, but maybe other people might want them.

I figured I would just treat them like regular cuttings unless somebody has a better plan.

Thanks,
Suzy

I'm not sure, I never tried rooting them. Mine are about 10 inch tall right now. They spread like crazy!

Tom

Well, that's comforting at least. Suzy, will you let us know? Of the 3 plants I put in last fall only 1 survived, so I'd like to be able to ~safely~ propagate some more....

Ok, well I'll try some tomorrow when I do my surgery and report back in a month or so. I was going to cut them with hedge clippers, and have been toying with the thought of using the electric knife on them, but will hand clip them shoot-by-shoot so I get some good cuttings. All in the interest of science.

PC, which ones didn't do well for you? Where'd they come from? Just wondering why they didn't come back...it's a robust plant, bordering on over enthusiastic. :)

Suzy

They're a member of the mint family & mints root easily.They should,too.Which kind do you have?I have the didyma,which does really well in Z6.But I didn't plant them in the fall,either.I started them from seed in early spring & planted out after frost was over.

Yeah - if I remember correctly, I got them on a close-out and they were really really pot bound.

>smile<

Enthusiasm is a good trait in my garden - they gotta *want* to live, lol!

Monarda roots quickly and easily from cuttings.I collected a broken piece from a white one at the garden center I used to work at.I brought it home stuck it in some dirt and it had a nice healthy root system in about two weeks.Oh yeah They are very enthusiatic!!

Hey, cool!

I know I said today was the day, but it was cold, cloudy, rainy and I did the dreaded housework instead. Tomorrow. :))

Suzy

Suzy, if you get them to root, can I get a few from you? I was just gonna buy some anyway. LMK
~Lucy

Sure thing!, You and leBug.

Maybe I should just send the cuttings to you - they'd root faster in Florida than this cold dreary place.

Ok, just dmail me how much. Thanks a zillion. : )

Has anyone mentioned that Monarda is on many invasive plant lists? I had a dickens of a time getting rid of it in my butterfly garden.

Interesting, as it's also (or some types of it) are native.

I have been attempting to root about 9 cuttings from my Jacob Kline. As they are all still alive after 2 1/2 weeks, I am assuming they have rooted? I used a root hormone. Someone on another forum mentioned that they are invasive, but I have looked at the invasive list for Indiana and they are not there. My small plant from last year certainly filled in well after only a year!

A note on the invasive topic. I was also told that euonymus was invasive. But after looking at the specific variety I have access to I have determined that it is not. Yes it is a euonymus fortunei, but it is a very slow grower and variegated. The Indiana invasive list says something about purple wintercreeper and keeping it away from trees and vegetation. Mine would be on a hill with nothing else. I guess it all comes down to due diligence on the part of the gardener.

Cabrlamo, I agree with you.... mostly! (It's just never clear and easy, is it?)

You're absolutely right that we have to be diligent. Especially people like me, who live so close to natural areas (my home borders a river that has wooded banks, etc.) But there are things we can't control and the first and foremost is birds and the wind. And both of those factors can be incredible in their ability to spread seed...

I've seen the effects of it in my own yard, most lately with Lamb's ears. I have those darn things coming up hundreds of feet away from the mother (and yes, I do mean mother!) plant, and I know there's no way they could have gotten there. I don't even let them bloom, I cut all the flowers off of them. But they come up everywhere.

The other point I'd like to make is that the Euonymous might not come true from seed - IOWs, I'd bet the variegated form is a hybrid and it just might breakdown to that dreaded purple whatever.

I kinda hate to post this - I know how frustrated I get when something I really really really want ends up being on the invasives list - I can't help but think "Oh, will one more make that much of a difference?" but I want it all - I want my natural areas, too, so I bite the bullet. Thanks for trying to be conscientious, too - it's not easy and at times its downright painful - like when I see a yard full of Paulownias... grrr.....

Moranda can get out of hand if not invasive in the strictest or legal sense. It did for me. I no longer wish to do what has to be done to keep it under control in my sandy loam. The butterflys will just have to find another plant they like.

Cabrlamo,

Some people use invasive as 'invasive for the area', and some use it as 'getting ot of control and taking up too much space in the garden'.

The problem with Euonymous is that the *berries* are eaten by birds and pooped out miles away. If you can keep yours in the juvenile state, then there isn't a problem with it being invasive to the area It's fairly easy to keep something like Euonymous coloratus and relatives in their juvenile state by not letting them climb, but fairly hard with Euonymus kiautschovicus (Manhattan) which has berries on even small shrubs..

The rotten thing is that almost any book you pick up about feeding birds with a natural habitat will offer Euonymous Manhattan as a great shrub to buy! Grr.

Suzy

Suzy............Yep it was a really good free lance writer that suggested certain plants as good butterfly and hummer attractors. They were but.......but three of them became monsters in my gardens. They were so good I could hardly get rid of them. To save a big 'ole arguement I choose not to mention the other two. If I had acres maybe we could have just let them go but I have just a nice backyard where they grew up and out grew the space in a hurry that I had given them. I finally dug and sifted the cut off roots out to get rid of Moranda. It does indeed attract the hummers as well as butterflys....very well.

If I wanted Moranda back in the show I would use a huge pot of sturdy design and hope I could miss it with the lawn mower where in it might escape and run free again.

I agree with the idea of invasive as disrupting the natural order in nature. There would be nothing for this euonymus to climb, besides up my hill. And true that does not necessarily mean that birds aren't going to do what comes natural to them. Illoquin what do you mean by juvenile state?

Docgipe, sorry to hear the monarda was such a beast for you. Mine has gotten quite big, but I have also allowed it a lot of room to grow. Last year my poor flower bed looked so bare because I allowed so much room between plants. This year everything is really filling in well. I can't wait to see how it looks next year.

Cabrlamo................It's allways a happening. The only consistancy in gardening is the very inconsistancy of it's being.

Cab,

The Euonymous as a ground cover is in its juvenile state. If you let it climb, it will eventually form a trunk and grow to adulthood. In adulthood it will have berries. But as a ground cover it doesn't bloom, and doesn't produce berries. Poison ivy is the exact same growth pattern, and I believe English Ivy is, too. You can't let them climb for years and years or you're asking for trouble. When I say years and years, I might mean decades, BTW, but time does pass, whether one lives on the property, or sells it and moves on; the plants are still there.

It is not invasive as in getting into a nearby woods and taking over the native wildflowers. It might be invasive as in the runners get into places where you might prefer it not gorw, but if you don't want it there, ya just pull it up.

Like I said, there are two meanings of invasive, especially in Dave's Garden forums, and the writer should be specific as to which kind is meant when s/he uses the word.

Suzy

Thanks for the education. Even mentioning "invasive" innocently can have a backlash of much greater magnitude than is necessary.