A Russian Sage Propagation Experiment

The other day I had an idea.  Instead of taking my pruned Russian sage branches and just dumping them in the compost, I thought what if I tried to make cuttings from them? I've propagated Russian sage cuttings very easily in the spring from softwood cuttings and even some during the summer but I've never tried hardwood cuttings.  This may just be an exercise in futility but it's worth an attempt if I manage to get a few more good plants before spring starts in earnest.

Here's what I did.

I took hardwood cuttings from two of our plants in the front sidewalk garden.  Both of which had significant hardwood stems from the previous year's growth.



While I was prepping the sand in it the container for the cuttings I put them into some water to prevent them from drying out.



Then I dipped the stem cuttings into the rooting hormone and stuck them into the sand.



Last I made sure sand was wet and put them into a sunny window.  We'll see if it works.  I would do the same technique with red twog dogwoods or any other hardwood cutting.  There is potential for success but you never know!  Free plants are definitely worth the effort.

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