Propagating Hydrangea Cuttings

How to propagate Hydrangea Cuttings

Propagating Hydrangea cuttings. I’ve brought here five different types of hydrangea. There are three hydrangea macrophylla. Arborescens and one panicled hydrangea. It is time to start rooting. because hydrangea is starting to bloom. It is the best if they stop blooming and the shoots are matured. But this year. . . the heat was so tiresome that the shoots matured immediately.

We can plant the cuttings. To root it, first, we need shoots like this one. We will cut them into pieces and root them. We take shoots with beautiful and green leaves. . . . . . and healthy. This leaf down there is a bit lemonish. After making the cutting, it can mature, get yellow and fall down too fast. The plant will root worse. The leaves should have such color. Fresh green. Here the two leaves are light green, but they are still OK. The bud has formed well. It will be suitable for the cuttings.

Prepare labels

The same with the rest hydrangeas. Don’t take the shoots from the inside of the shrub. And now. . . You can prepare some kind of labels. So that you wrote down what you’d planted. You won’t remember the next day, for sure. Let’s start preparing cuttings. I got rid of weak leaves from this node. I’ll cut off the cutting from the rest of the shoot. You can use vaccination knife or you can use the one for cutting wallpaper. It has to be extremely sharp. Cut off 1 or 1,5 cm above the leaf nodes. To root better and not to dry up, let’s remove the leaf. And the big one. . . I cut in half. so that the small area evaporates. Let’s put it away.

This cutting is suitable for planting. Three or four centimeters of it go inside. There will be something left above the ground. It’s not too big. A good cutting is 8-10 cm long. Not more. It’s ready to be planted. And the next one. I’m removing the leaves. I’m correcting the cutting which was made with secateurs. And secateurs crushes a bit. Again, cut off above the node. Remove the leaf. Because this leaf is small, I’ll leave it like that. The internode is too short. So, we can remove the leaves. And we use this to make the cutting.

Preparing the cuttings

The last one was Hydrangea macrophylla. White. The one we have in front of the office.  This cutting is shorter but it’s still enough. Four cm to the ground. . . The big leaf must be cut in half. The way it was cut shows that the tool was sharp. The cutting won’t be damaged and will be healthy. This very nice tip we can also use as a cutting. Just remove all the leaves.  We’re creating the cutting from the shoot apex. It’s woody enough. I’ll leave the leaves on it because they are small. I have to smooth the cutting because it was crushed by the secateurs.

I’m cutting one centimeter above the leaves. And we have another piece. This cutting would be too long. I’ll shorten it. It can’t be too long either? Not too long because it would be too big to keep the plant alive. We have to keep it alive until it gets roots. The tip’s left. . . with some flower bud. I’ll do something like this. And we’re going to have two nodes. One of them is going to have flowers for sure. And we’re doing the same thing with another one. Shorten what’s damaged by secateurs. Cut off the cutting. Remove one leaf.

Additional preparation

What has browned must be cut off because it will be moldy. Shorten, cut off. . . Pluck, pluck, pluck and we’ve made apex cutting. And now the most beautiful, a woody part needs to be cut off. Extremely ripe. Won’t be too short? No, it’s enough. . . three centimeters inside the ground and the bud above the ground. The cutting should be 8-10 centimeters long. Not longer. We can make one more from this shoot. We’ll put the flower away. Again. We have another one. And the same. A woody part has to be removed.

I’m getting rid of the leaves. The cutting is nearly ready. I’ll put it here. I’m cutting off the tip. One leaf has to be cut in half. It can be without the flowers. If you have such shrubs which bloom in spring. Then you don’t even have to care about removing the flowers. We’re dividing it into two parts. We’re going to have another apex cutting. And one more. . . I’ve been doing it for so short and look how advanced I am. This tip is too short.  .

Last call for cuttings?

When is the last call for making such cuttings of hydrangea? Even till the end of September. The later we make it, the less woody it is and harder to survive winter. Now, the other hydrangea called Annabelle. The same rules. It’s bigger so we have to shorten everything. Their leaves are huge. I’ll shorten them. We’re cutting off one leaf from the pair. The other one we’re cutting in half. And the cutting is ready. The flower is here as a label. Leaves are so long. Typical for this variety. But, it’s got big flowers. . . as well. We’ll have to clean up this mess.

We prune the bottom. Get rid of the damaged leaf. Shorten. . . and here’s the cutting. Shorten. Cut. Remove. The cutting’s ready. Shorten. Remove. Cut. Here also has to be shorten. Can’t be too big. And the last shoot from Annabelle. Correct the secateurs’ cut. Shorten. Put away. Shorten, remove, and so on. How do you call this kind of cuttings? Semi-hardwood cuttings. There’s a difference between softwood cuttings and semi-hardwood cuttings. First one are made from soft stem. You can use it for tomatoes and cucumbers. You can make a phlox.

Semi-hardwood cuttings

Here we’re preparing semi-hardwood cuttings. We’d waited till the plant bloomed. Look at this shoot. You can see that it’s wood. And this is hydrangea-paniculata. This shoot has got small leaves so I’ll leave them. The big one. . . Oh no. . . wait. Flower. . . OK. Ask me a question. But aloud! There are different types of propagation hydrangea, yes? Are they all to find in our guide? Yes. You can find them in our guide. We won’t show it. Because it’s the calendar of vaccinations and plant propagation.

Everything is explained there. What and when. . . With small description. Are there the dates? Yes. The dates are given. If you watch one film on YT, you’ll understand. There are: the schedule, samples of different cutting. While reading our guide, you learn a lot. We don’t have to show you everything step by step. It’s enough to watch this movie about the propagation. Yes. Watch what I’m doing here. And then do the same in your garden according to the planting schedule.

The best time to make cuttings

There are also other films about the vaccination and propagation. Propagating Hydrangea cuttings concerns evergreen and coniferous plants. If someone hadn’t make it, he’ll watch it for the future. But mainly, please look into the calendar and the films we shoot on a regular basis. I’ll show you one plant from some family. . . And you can propagate the others in the same way. In this way, we have come to the end of preparing the cuttings. We’ll start from the one I cut first. . . because the wound has dried up a little bit. It’s the best when a cutting rests before planting. Juices has to come back. The bottom should dry up. The best time to make cuttings is early in the morning. When the plant is full of energy and water.

For rooting I use “Kaptan”. It’s fungicide and stimulates callus development. I’ll take the box in which I’m going to carry my cuttings. I put the bottom into the powder. in Kaptan You can buy whatever powder you like. Is it necessary? No, the root system can be formed without chemicals. But with Kaptan there will be smaller percentage of rotten cuttings. We won’t plant the flower, will we?

Plant our cuttings

You have to manage in every situation. I’ve already showed you how to prepare the bed. And here I have it. And now we’ll plant our cuttings. Let’s start. We’ll do in the area made by the box. Here. We can put the cuttings directly to the ground. Or to the pots. But remember it has to survive over winter. Those pots are worse choice. Frost will penetrate the spaces between the containers. This soil is on the ground. . . which will warm it, a little bit. If we also cover it, then keeping it alive should be easy. How many cuttings do we have? Eight. I’m making a hole. Be careful with the powder. Three, four centimeters. So you don’t push it into the ground? You can press it but it’s better if the hole is already ready.

Plant it every five cm. Not too sparsely, but also not too densely. Press it lightly. They can touch each other very gently. But they can’t overlap. And the last one. We turn the leaves inward. I’m going to bring the rest. The pink one. Now pink, and the previous one was white. You’ll label them. When we finish here. Dip and put in. Dip. Make a hole. Put in. Will this cuttings bloom next year? Yes, they will. If you do it quite early, there’s a chance they will bloom from the side shoots this year. Because they will release shoots. It’s only the beginning of July. Or the middle. . . Beginning. I’ve dipped the stick. . . I’m too stressed. I’m making mistakes. Now, we’re doing it and then we’ll show you how everything happens. Done.

What’s next?

I’ll take the flowers. You’ll make the labels later. Now dark pink hydrangea. I’ll dip them in my powder first. Otherwise I’ll dip a stick. . . It must be – so called – stress. The white one is beautiful because it turns pink. First, it gets pink spots. And later on it turns pink. Not whole but almost. In the end it’s green. It’s worth looking for a white variety. It is the most resistant to frost. Isn’t it? We had to remove old shoots once, five or six years old. We showed you the process of pruning. I’m doing it without ceremony. . . I’ll make the holes in advance. One leaf can be over the other? They can be above each other. But they shouldn’t press each other.

You can arrange them however you want. We’ll make one row of this one. I won’t make more. I’ve got many of them. Now, hydrangea arborescens. Very popular Annabelle. How many holes do you have? Two, four, six, seven. Seven. Let’s go. One. Two. Three. Leaves go in the same direction. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Next one. Last hydrangea paniculata. OK. Make eight holes. Yes? I’ll put them in one line and dip them in the powder. One. Second. Third. Fourth. Eight. One row is made. Pass me the flower of these cuttings. I have to stand behind you. Show what’s next.

Watering

Now, I’ll show you the next step. Take the flowers. There are many gaps here. The soil doesn’t adhere well. Take a watering-can with a sieve. And let the water stand still. The sand in this mixture will stick to the cutting. Will get tighter. Too much water. That’s fine. And it’s gone to the holes. What’s left. . . Only. . . Cover them and press. Don’t let too much air to get inside. Depends on their needs, we have to sprinkle the cuttings. How often?  It depends on the weather. If it’s cloudy, like today, do it once a day. Water it only when the bed is visibly dry. Can’t be muddy.

When it’s sunny. . . I’ve made it in the shade, the sun doesn’t come here. Sprinkle three times a day. When it’s sunny. If it’s cloudy, do it in the morning once and if you sprinkle in the evening, it’ll be great. If you see the cutting is sick or moldy. Or it’s wet and cold for some time. Open this window. To vent it. On cloudy days we can take it away. But don’t forget to cover them again! Because some cat or different animal can destroy it. They can also dry up. The cuttings need water but not much because they will drown. You have to be careful. If some mold shows up, even one, spray it with Topsin. It should stop the process. And open the window for a couple of days. That’s all.

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