Rooting Lilacs and roses aka: Semi softwood cuttings

This is a reprint of an old blog post I did in 2011 for those of you that missed it the first time, it compliments my last post on propagating Pelargoniums aka: soft wood cuttings.  And the title of this post should say Semi HARD wood cuttings not soft.  An off moment there..

 Awhile back I stated I would do a post of how I root cuttings. I have a neighbor that has an old lilac bush that she was told is called a 49’er Lilac. It supposedly came West with the 49’ers in the Gold Rush. (or it’s parent did) I have admired this Lilac for the 13 years I have lived in my little cottage. In the spring I will sit on my front garden step and wait for the lilac fragrance to drift my way on the morning breeze and delight my senses. Here is a few blossoms I trimmed from it this year.

I prepare my propagation box. I use a wine crate and fill with my own mixture of 2 parts compost (I get this from a local company that composts garden debris on a huge scale, it is similar to potting soil you buy at a garden center), 1 part perlite and 1 part sand (I am sure there are better mixtures but I used what I had on hand and I have had success with this in the past).

I have recently read that play sand can contain salt and may not be a good one to use, sharp sand is reputed to be superior for this use.

The crate has slats on the bottom but there are wide gaps between the slats so this drains very well. I have it sitting on the gravel floor of my greenhouse in an area that direct sunlight will not hit but it still gets plenty of bright light. I will fill the box more with my potting mix until it is nearly full.



I will use this fish tank as my cover to create a small greenhouse effect.



Now back out to the Lilac to get the cuttings.

I choose the new growth I want to cut from and choose some about 8 to 12 inches long.



I take quite a few cuttings, the more I try to root the better my chances are of getting some to actually grow for me. I know I may lose some to fungus or who knows what. I had to wait for the right time to take cuttings (or so I have read) and this is the right time for this type (semi-hardwood).
I haul them all to my greenhouse and begin. First I strip most of the leaves from the cutting. I dip the ends into the rooting medium.

Now this medium I have had for awhile and it says it only has a years shelf life but I have kept it in the refrigerator to extend that shelf life so I hope it is still potent enough to do the job. I should invest in some fresh stuff soon.


I have a small paint brush in the jar as well. The jar is not deep enough to cover all of the stem I need to be covered with the medium so I use the little paint brush to finish the job.



See the nodes on the stem, that is wear roots begin and I want a good portion of nodes below the potting soil.



I also take some rose cuttings for the hey of it. I normally like the roses to be a bit more hardened off than they are now, like later on in the Fall. I have had more success that way, these softer cuttings while the bushes are blooming succumb to fungus more often than the later cut ones but I thought I would give it a go just for the fun of it.



Now that they are all dipped and thoroughly coated with the rooting gel I stick them in the potting soil mixture.



I place the far enough apart they do not touch each other and away from the edges so they will not touch the glass of the cover. I should take off more leaves, the leaves tend to be where the fungus starts but for photo purposes I will leave them on, easier to see where the cuttings are. After placing all the cuttings in the box I carefully set the cover over them.
 


You can see there is room around the fish tank where the potting soil shows and that is how I water this without having to lift the tank. You don’t want the soil very wet just damp, if it is too wet you drown the poor cutting or encourage the fungus.  Also prop up the tank a bit to let air flow in.




And here is the results …a lovely new rose from a cutting..


 
A lovely lilac…I think it takes 3 years for them to bloom.   We shall see.



I have just read up on a new (to me) way of rooting semi softwood cuttings.  I am going to give it a whirl and report in with the results in a few months.

Happy Planting.



   

A Custom Garden Sign

Yahoo!  A good day.  This is the first day I can say I feel like things will be back to normal soon.  I am so done with not being productive and active. 
 
I actually was able to paint today. 

Just a simple sign ordered from my new website (which I need to get back to work on soon) but simple is what I needed to get back into the swing of things.  My brain is not at 100% yet so this was a good start.

I just have to add the name to the top and then varathane it.  It will make a nice gift for a lovely lady, it was ordered by her friend.  



You can get a peek at another sign I am working on.   You can just see the birdhouse below the A in Garden.  That has been a fun sign too.  I hope to get it finished up this week. 

After weeks of beautiful sunny weather we are getting hammered with snow.  Not a bad thing since the storm will only last thru the night, as far as we are told. 

Now to kick up my feet for a bit, I don’t want to overdo. I think I need to pull out some crochet and veg.

Later all…

Another beautiful day!

The weather has been spring like making it easier to work out of doors.  My bench is coming along and I will post the update soon with photos of us building it. 

I took the time Sunday morning to walk my gardens and see what was blooming.  My Hyacinths provide a sweet perfume that is pleasant as I walk thru the different blooms. 



This was taken just a few days ago and now it has change already. As soon as the sun starts shining steadily and warms up the earth the garden begins to really get to work.



One of my New Millennium Delphinium seedlings, in the past I have called them English Delphiniums but I should correct myself here.  This one was in my greenhouse and is already blooming but the ones I put out in the garden last Fall are cropping up just fine as well, they will take longer to produce blooms.

You can go here to see my post on starting these from seed.



I have started a lot of these and I am going to plant them all in my garden, I love them! These were protected by wire to keep the chickens from digging them up as they hunted for worms.



My Japanese Maple seedlings are all leafing out.  I will share my method of sprouting these guys soon, it is easy enough.  I had nabbed these seeds off the patio of a restaurant that was surrounded by Japanese Maples, the seeds littered the ground thickly.  I will have to try there again this Fall and see if I can get more.



My Cecile Brunner climber is loaded with buds, the side I my chicken house this is clambering up will be awash with the spicy scented pink blooms soon.



All of my Clematis are donning buds as well.  Each one is a different color.  They sure seem to like it here. 



A thick carpet of Larkspur volunteering in the garden.



And some purple flower signs I have been painting on.






And a couple rose signs to ship out today.





I certainly hope everyone enjoys their Tuesday.  Another sunny spring day here and out to the studio I go.  First I think I will put down some more Delphinium seeds, I can’t have too many!