by Lindsay Bond Totten
Scripps Howard News Service
Patience is indeed a virtue, but sometimes the pocketbook offers gardeners added incentive to be good. Especially those whose gardens could use "drifts" or shrubs, on budgets that dictate "specimens."
Healthy new plants are just a short wait away when you start your own shrubs from summer cuttings. The price drops dramatically, from many dollars to pennies a piece, but cost is a bonus compared to the satisfaction--and pleasure--from cloning your own nursery stock.
If that sounds difficult, or too high-tech, it's neither one. Gardeners have been cloning shrubs for centuries. You need only simple supplies, a few things you probably already have. The only item you may need to get is a tiny jar of rooting compound, enough to produce hundreds of new plants and available from most garden centers.
Early summer is the time to take softwood tip cuttings. Shoots are usually ready to go by June or July, after the new growth has fully expanded, but before the stems have completely hardened off.
Gather cuttings early in the day. Cover them immediately with damp paper towels and keep them out of the sun to prevent them from wilting. Cuttings will be different lengths, depending on the species, but be sure to include two sets of leaves, plus a short length of stem below the bottom node.
Fill a large, clean, shallow pot--a bulb pan is perfect--with a mixture of equal parts peat-based soilless potting media and perlite. It's important that the soil drain very quickly or cuttings may rot.
A 10-inch bulb pan can hold about five or six average-sized cuttings, more if the cuttings are small.
To prepare the cuttings, trim the stem about one inch below the bottom node. Gently pull off the lower leaves exposing small wounds on the stem.
Dust both the wounds and the cut end of the stem with rooting compound. The fine white powder contains plant hormones, called auxins, which boost the plant's natural rooting potential. Tap off the excess powder--each cutting needs just a tiny amount of the chemical.
With a pencil or dowel, poke a hole in the potting soil deep enough to accommodate one cutting. The bottom node, from which the roots will arise, should be a half-inch or more below the soil surface. Firm the soil gently around the cutting.
Finally, with sharp scissors, cut the remaining leaves in half. The cuttings need a little bit of foliage to produce energy to fuel the rooting process. Too much leaf surface, however, taxes the stem beyond its ability to absorb moisture; if untrimmed, the leaves may wilt and die.
Water the cuttings by setting the pot in a basin of lukewarm water for several minutes.
Until they root, usually in six to eight weeks, keep softwood cuttings constantly damp. In lieu of a misting system (used by professional propagators), enclose the pot in a large clear plastic bag to increase the humidity and retain moisture.
Keep the plastic from touching the leaves by inserting three short pieces of dowel into the soil at the edge of the pot to create a teepee over the cuttings. Label the cuttings with the name of the plant and the date they were started.
For the next few weeks, the cuttings will need a cool shady spot to rest and make new roots. Place them under a bench, protected from the wind, or on the north side of a building where they'll never get direct sun.
Once a week, check to see if the soil has dried out. Water sparingly--the soil should never be soggy.
After about four weeks, begin to check for progress. Look for fine white roots showing at the drainage holes in the bottom of the pot. Tug gently on one or two of the stems. Resistance indicates that the cuttings are rooting.
Not all of the cuttings will "take." Some species are fast and reliable roots. Gardeners can expect more than three-fourths of eager varieties like forsythia, hydrangea, wintercreeper and willow to develop roots.
Lilacs, however, need more encouragement. It's not unusual for fewer than 20 percent of lilac cuttings to root.
Intermediate are shrubs like burning bush, redstem and yellowstem dogwood, fothergilla, witchhazel, butterfly bush, viburnum, spiraea, kerria and rose. Always start a few more cuttings than you need to make up for losses.
Rooted cuttings are ready to separate when the new roots are well established but before they start crowding each other in the pot. Transplant cuttings to individual 4-inch pots filled with soilless mix. Put them in a flat and place them in a protected spot (don't cover them with plastic) to grow until fall. Keep the plants moist and feed monthly with a dilute soluble fertilizer.
In fall, you have a decision to make. If the plants are sturdy and growing well, plant them out in a nursery bed and mulch them well. If they're still too small to make it on their own, carry them over the winter in a covered frame or cool garage. Move them to the nursery bed next year.
One year from the following spring, patience will have paid off. You'll have healthy young nursery stock in numbers that will make a big impact in the garden without making a dent in the wallet.
(Lindsay Bond Totten, a horticulturist, writes about gardening for Scripps Howard News Service.)
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