9.20.2009

Making Babies



{ My Glory Blue Hydrangea }

Unfortunately I am referring to plants and not myself. I am totally in love with my Endless Summer hydrangeas, in case you haven't noticed. I want a ton of them in my yard, but I don't have the cash to buy 3 or 4 more plants so I did some research on propagating. Basically you are creating a new plant from the stem of an old one.

I found a couple websites that offered various ways of doing it. One site was way to "technical plant geek" for me and another gave info that wasn't really doable, so I combined what I read and tried it the traditional way- put a cutting into water to make it root. This is my way:


1. Find a stem on your hydrangea that hasn't had a bloom on it yet.
2. Cut the top section of the stem right above the 2nd leaf nodes- so you have one section of leaves on the stem and the very top leaves intact.
3. Put that baby in water, and wait... Forever... for some roots to grow!
4. Change and refresh the water every couple days and put it in a sunny spot in the house, near a window works well.

Keep checking your stem for root growth. Again mine took about 2 weeks to get some good roots growing. Once I had about 1/2 inch of root growth I transferred it to a small pot with a 70/30 mixture of potting soil and sand. Keep your new planting in a semi-shade spot outside and continue to water it. Try to keep it well watered.



So far mine is trucking away. I think I'll pull it up this week and replant it to check the roots. I hope this helps some of you hydrangea-lovin people from having to buy more plants! Let me know if you have some success too! I'll keep you posted on mine.


1 comment:

  1. Great Post! I love them too and want several. My mother's yard has over 60 plants! One of her tricks is to purchase them at Flea Markets ( much cheaper, and wider variety)!
    I am gonna try to propogate this week as well. Thanks for the tips!

    ReplyDelete

I would love to hear what you have to say, but comments may be monitored for those few who are 'Debbie-Downers'. This is a creative outlet, I'm no expert, I just like to show others what I'm doing 'round the house. Like it or leave it.