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Hardwood Cuttings, Winter of 2015/2016.
Hardwood cuttings are cuttings that are done during the winter months, when the wood that you use to make the cuttings is hard and not pliable. See this for a Detailed Explanation of How to Do Hardwood Cuttings.
Couple of days ago I was looking at this post about Proper Nursery Plant Tagging and on that page I have a photo of pathetic looking sticks in a bed of sand and I thought to myself; “Wow! those cuttings really were sorry looking, I should show people what that bed looks like now, less than one year later. So here ya go!
This is the photo that I took last winter, we stuck these cuttings in Nov-Dec 2015.
Hardwood cuttings in a bed of sand.
For a detailed list of what Plants are in this Bed, see this Page.
I am writing this in September 2016 and I will share with you how successful this attempt at hardwood cuttings was. Keep in mind, this is exactly how these cuttings went through the winter. Completely uncovered, exposed to the elements. Stuck in nothing but coarse sand, and much to my dismay there were not snow covered all winter as I would have liked. Snow cover is good. It keeps them moist and protected from the elements. Last winter we didn’t have much snow, so my little cuttings were on their own.
This is what the bed looks like today.
Hardwood cuttings, less that 12 months after being stuck in sand.
Looking at the bed from the opposite end you can see Pink Whisper Potentilla. They did okay, but not great. But the cuttings that we used were really poor quality, they looked dead. I usually do Potentilla as Softwood Cuttings because they Root Easily that Way.
Next to those are some Blue Artic Willow. They are at least a foot tall.
At the far end you can see some Golden Curls Willow, they are huge! About 3′ tall. You can also see some Purple Sandcherry and some Rose of Sharon.
Rose of Sharon and Purple Sand Cherry Propagation.
Here’s a closer shot of the Purple Sandcherry and Rose of Sharon. The Rose of Sharon are in bloom!
See those two bare spots in the bed? The bare spot to the right is a section of Snow Mound Spirea, hundreds of them, that failed to root. This is how we learn things. I thought that they would do well as hardwoods but they did horrible. From now on we’ll only do them as softwood cuttings.
The bare spot to the left? That area was filled with Annabelle Hydrangea Cuttings. They root so easily as hardwood cuttings that they are ready to pot by mid summer so we pulled them and potted them in June of this year.
Want to see something amazing?
Annabelle Hydrangea from hardwood cuttings, ready to sell in less than one year.
These are the Annabelles that we rooted last winter and potted this summer! There are two groups of them in this photo. See the white flowers on the right and on the left?
In less than one year, from a hardwood cutting to a saleable plant! Right now we have customers buying these at $5.97 each. They are so tall they are falling over but I won’t trim them until Nov when we can make hardwood cuttings again.
And that’s the beauty of growing plants from scratch!
Questions or comments? Post them below.
Source: http://mikesbackyardnursery.com/2016/09/hardwood-cuttings-winter-of-20152016/
