Everyone likes a hydrangea in the garden. And everyone likes having more hydrangeas! So why not propagate a few more hydrangeas? Of course you have to have a suitable spot for one but if you have a garden location with dappled morning sun and afternoon shade you have the perfect home to plant a hydrangea. But this post isn't about planting a hydrangea, it's about making more hydrangeas through cuttings. Hydrangeas are one of the easiest shrubs you can propagate. It is possible to root hydrangeas through water but I don't recommend using the water method for hydrangeas. I like using a propagation medium like sand or sand/peat for most of my cuttings. What you use is up to you and will probably work fine.
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| Hydrangea macrophylla Cutting |
How to Propagate/Root a Hydrangea:
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| Hydrangea rooting |
- Whenever you try to root cuttings make sure that your cutting tools are clean. You don't want to transfer diseases from another plant to your new hydrangea!
- First I take a softwood cutting with a couple nodes on it. I don't worry so much about the length of the cutting but if you keep at least two nodes you can be sure it will be long enough. I try to avoid flowering cuttings so I don't cut off any potential blooms.
- I remove all but two leaves. Some people leave 4 and trim back the leaves to avoid excessive moisture loss.
- Then I dab a little rooting hormone over the cut ends and a little bit of the stem.
- After that I place it in a moist rooting medium (i.e. sand) and continue to keep it moist. In about 10 days it will begin rooting.
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| Hydrangea rooting along the stem. |
It is really a simple process. I could have left the cuttings to grow a few more roots before transplanting them but they should do fine with a little care. The amount of nodes isn't a hard and fast rule but the more nodes you have closer together the more natural growth hormones reside in that part of the stem, which - in theory - means faster rooting. I only take a couple stem tip cuttings at a time but if you are wanting a bunch of hydrangeas propagated you can cut one branch then divide it into multiple cuttings. Rooting forms along the stem and not just at the nodes (as you can see in the picture) so internodal cuttings should work out fine.
Always keep in mind that you want to use a clean medium for your cuttings, keep sterile equipment for making the cuts, and take cuttings from disease free plants. If any one of those factors isn't present problems with rooting may occur.
This method works great for both lacecap and mophead hydrangeas (Hydrangea macrophylla) but other types of hydrangeas, like oak leaf (Hydrangea quercifolia) may need a slightly different treatment. I've found that oak leaf hydrangea is a little tricky sometimes to get rooted but it definitely can be done!Labels: plant propagation, shrubs
