Winter daphne

Would now be a good time to try to root cuttings of winter daphne? Mine is starting to bloom and I've love to have more.

It looks like you have Daphne odora 'Aureomarginata' which is hardier than the species, or possibly 'Variegata' (the former has flowers that are reddish purple on the outside and nearly white within, the latter's flowers are pale pink). Either way, they are wonderful shrubs as you know, and not as temperamental as most daphnes. It's best to take cuttings after the growth flush hardens in June and July. A covered frame, even putting cuttings in a pot within a plastic bag helps. Use a rooting hormone and insert in a peat/perlite mix. Rooting takes about 8 weeks. Rooting percentages are higher than those of other daphne species. Good luck!

Hoosier: Thanks for the tip. Here is another photo of my daphne taken today while I was WSing some seeds:

Lucky you! I have a 'Carol Mackie' daphne, but a good portion of it died off last summer after doing so well for years. Luckily, one branch had rooted and so I do have a good replacement.

I love my aureomarginata, though I have to over-winter in the garage.
It provides wonderful fragrant flowers at about the time I'm desperate for spring.
And if it can make my garage smell good, it must be powerfully fragrant, which it is.

It's rated as zone7, so with global warming and all, I've been tempted to try it outside,
but my courage has failed me so far.
Has anyone had any luck with it in fairly cold zones (outside)?

I'm in zone 7 here, too, and it does fine outside.

Weerobin, I've grown it both here and in my last garden and it does fine. It doesn't bloom this early here, usually toward the middle of next month it will show buds.

I discovered winter daphne last year, the plants are among my must have list. Though, it grows slowly. H.P. yours are beautiful and established. How old is your shrub? I've been followed your thread for days.
Kim

Lily: The one in Kannapolis was planted around 2004, best of my memory, so it's several years old. The one in Asheville was planted in 2005, so only three years old, but it's growing like crazy and I even pruned it last year because it was overshadowing some DLs I had planted. Love daphne! It smells so heavenly, it perfumed the entire terrace when it's in full bloom.

Well folks, I spoke to soon. A visit to the garden confirmed that my varigated Daphne Odoras now have buds!!!

The Daphne Cneorums still have some late fall buds, but I don't know if they will flower. They seem to bloom intermittently year round with a spectacular long spring bloom.

Hoosier, my Carole Mackie put out at least 16 to 18" of new growth this past summer. I'm thinking of getting 2 more of these.

Hemophobic, Your Odora really is spectacular, such a nice dark color and just covered in buds.

Here's another Daphne in my shrub bed with lots of buds. It's called Bowles White. The leaves are very shiny and a much lighter green. The blooms will be white.

Stormy: Oooh, I like yours, too! Think I'll have to start looking for that one. Daphne smells so heavenly when it's blooming, I just love it.

One caveat about growing any daphnes: They are famous for being very fickle. One day you'll have a plant that is the picture of health, and the next day it'll be all crinkled leaves, rapidly turning brown. There is no accepted reason for this and it's commonly referred to as "Sudden Daphne Death". Since daphnes are rather pricey, you might start with smaller plants unless price is no object.

It's pricey this time of year where it's peak time to show off its charm!

One thing I'm planning is to take some cuttings later in the spring and try to root some. I know daphnes are fickle and can suddenly die for no apparent reason, so I want to be sure I always have some in my garden.

You can try taking spring cuttings, but the literature on daphnes recommends June-July cuttings for greatest success. Be sure to use a rooting hormone (powder or dip) to increase your rooting percentages. The best medium is a mix of peat and perlite, and misting or covering with plastic (little greenhouse effect) seems to help, but with not too much moisture. Rooting takes about 8 weeks.

Thanks, Hoosier. I've printed this thread so I have your earlier advice and this most recent suggestion.

Are anyone's Daphnes looking positively frozen right now? It always makes me think that they won't survive. Then remarkably almost always they do.

Hmm, Stormy. I was all set to plant mine out this spring, but maybe I'll wait to see if yours resuscitates.
Here's a post of mine all snug and warm in my garage.
Getting ready to pop in the next week or two.

MIne doesn't seem to have suffered any and we were down into the teens Friday night.

I'd def. take more precaution for planting hardy evergreen up North in winter. (Especially where Robin is...), mine in zone 7b. They're just fine with short burst of teens temp. (farenheits). Down here too, we've sustained a brief single digit temp. this week. My daphne appears to have weathered it well.

This is an unusually long cold spell for us. So we will see. They don't look any worse than the Rododendrons, I just love them more!!

I found this write up to be interesting especially where he talks about the sudden death.

http://www.arrowheadalpines.com/defg_shrub.htm

Weerobin, you'll be happy to hear that during the one day we had without snow and freezing temps, my Daphnes thawed and actually looked fine.

Thanks for the update, Stormy.
I may be able to muster up enough courage to try planting one out this spring.
I'm never as confident about zone-pushing during the depths of winter.
It's been single digits the last 2 nights with highs around 20.
So global warming doesn't have as much power in my plant selections this time of year.
My aureomarginata is in full bloom right now (garaged!).
On these cold days, it's nice having something in bloom to remind me that spring is on it's way.
I also have a couple camellias blooming their hearts out (garaged also, of course).

Oops. I messed up the pix for above post.
Here's my garaged camellia (not a great picture, but you get the idea).
Spring can't be far behind, regardless what the groundhog had to say.

23* and snow here today. Sunday I was outside doing more WSing and my daphne perfumed the entire patio! It was heavenly.

Weerobin, your Camellia is beautiful! Mine are all doing well outside, the fall bloomer actually started blooming about Nov 15th and bloomed until about New Years. The other 3 are now full of buds.

Hemophobic, that sounds just wonderful! We've been under about 6" of ice encrusted snow with absolutely no melt for 3 days. It's supposed to be 55 on Sunday. It's amazing that the plants can withstand such extremes.