Buddleia - start from a cutting?

[jeral Profile]

Does anyone know if this is possible from a very well established shrub/tree? If so how please. I'm not sure whether it might work, maybe with a spot of hormone rooting powder, but don't know if to plant a tip (say 6") or perhaps take a piece of stem between two notches. Any ideas?

Ta.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I have taken buddleia cuttings years ago, I just pulled a twig from one I liked the look of, and stuck it in the ground, worked fine, they are very hard to kill

Proper instructions abound on the internet e.g. Monty's

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/gardening/article-2019695/ASK-MONTY-How-I-cuttings-plant-to-friends.html

Cuttings usually taken in late summer

[jeral Profile]

Many thanks for that. I half expected the advice would be to go buy one so great to know that it can be done. Looks like I might have to wait a while, but fine, as I was worried I might miss the "growing season".

[hungryhousewife Profile]

Yes, I agree with Sue - just pull off a nice shoot when they start shooting - trim off any really dangly/stringy bits and shove it quite deep either straight into the soil or stick several around the outside of a pot of gritty compost. I've never bothered with rooting powder. Things want to live and should be able to, if you give them the right conditions.

I sometimes do the showercap/plastic bag thing and it can help get things going, but you have to be careful - things can rot very easily in those conditions.

How exciting to think that our old friends will soon be popping up their heads to say hello!!

HH

[Joanbunting Profile]

Oh dear reminds me I must get out and prune DD's - when the temperature get above -7°C at night and the snow that fell on Saturday clears - welcome to sunny Provence!

I accidentally grew some cuttings from said bush when I caught a few twigs on the ground with some stones I was using to hold the plastic membrane down. They were slighty broken and just sprouted in what little soil there was - so I cut them off and repotted them and they flourished. I think technically it is called layering ??

[jeral Profile]

I'm not sure about layering. I did once try that on an umbrella plant (like a cheese plant) by half-cutting through the main stem (in the right place notch-wise) and packing with soil with a poly bag wrap and theoretically roots would grow. They did actually, but nothing like the sort of root bundle you'd want if you expected the plant to survive once severed. Patience is a virtue maybe? I think the bits of twig method might be called something else... Mind you, for some reason I seem to remember it being called air-layering what I did so maybe ordinary layering is the twigs sort...

Glad your twigs grew The little soil and the earlier link that said something like well drained stony see to correlate.

Edit PS: Oh yes, yours would be layering. I was thinking you meant bits of twig broken off but you're saying strands still attached yes? Your sort of layering works for a few things where a "long strand" is wedged into soil with a hair-pin type staple (at a notch) and allowed to root before being severed, e.g. lilac.