August 4, 1997
Many of the trees and shrubs popular in the home landscape can be started from cuttings during August. With most of these plants, it is not difficult to produce an abundance of tiny new plants.
Be warned, however, that it may take three to five years before they reach the size you see in the nursery. If you are equipped with patience, propagating your landscape plants can be challenging and fun.
Depending on the plant involved, cuttings taken at this time of the year may be softwood or semi-hardwood cuttings. Softwood cuttings are taken from new growth that still is relatively soft and succulent and before the tissue has matured or become woody. You can tell if the plant is in condition for rooting by trying to snap off a 3 to 6-inch tip. If it breaks, it is ready. But tips which bend instead of breaking are too soft and may deteriorate before rooting. Those which are too woody may be slow to root.
Make softwood cuttings 3 to 6-inches long. Strip the lower leaves before inserting the cuttings into the rooting medium. Space cuttings so the leaves just touch each other. Do not overcrowd them. In general, softwood cuttings root most quickly in a warm, humid atmosphere. Among the landscape plants that root well as softwood cuttings are abelia, buddleia, and roses.
Semi-hardwood or green wood cuttings differ from softwood cuttings only in the maturity of the wood. For deciduous plants that root better from semi-hardwood cuttings, the cuttings are taken later in the season when the lower portion of the stem has become lignified or partially mature. Cuttings from evergreens generally are obtained from new shoots, five to 10 weeks after a flush of growth when the wood is partially mature.
To root broadleafed evergreens such as azaleas and holly, take cuttings that are six to eight inches long. Remove leaves or small branches from the base of the cutting and insert it in a rooting medium. Broadleafed evergreens are easily rooted in a cold frame with a glass or plastic cover to increase the humidity. They will root more rapidly if provided with bottom heat, such as from an electric heating cable.
You can take cuttings from these broadleafed evergreens: boxwood, holly, mahonia, mountain laurel, pyracantha, and rhododendron. The following conifers can be propagated in the same fashion: arborvitae, chamaecyparis, cryptomeria, juniper, and taxus.
More gardening information is available in the Virginia Gardener Newsletter.
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