Last Fall, my grandmother gave me some cuttings from a hydrangea shrub. She advised me to make a fresh cut, dip the end in water, dip in rooting hormone, and stick in the ground. This seemingly too-simple-sounding method of propagation worked well for her last year. I planted about eight cuttings around the yard with guarded enthusiasm. It’s too early to see if these little cuttings will wake up and turn into new plants, but I have reserved some optimism.
This weekend I was out pruning the fruit trees and shrubs when the idea struck me that perhaps I could try the same method with blueberries. On a whim, with out doing any real research (not typically my style), I decided to try my luck with some stems that had been pruned off.
The stems I cut were about the thickness of a pencil and were new growth from last season. If I notice buds forming, I am planning to remove those so the cuttings can focus instead of root development. The small jar of rooting hormone, which should last me until 2020, was only about $4 bucks. So if this little whimsical experiment (that’s for you Molly) doesn’t work out, I’m really not out a whole lot.
My little plan is to wait until May to determine if life is about. If not, I had planend to buy some small blueberries to tuck into our little food forest anyway. But if this happened to be a lucky weekend for me, I may have just found a frugal gardener’s dream come true: more of my favorite plants without having to pay a cent!
Good idea on removing the buds. All my fruit trees and bushes are under feet of snow, sigh. Can’t wait for spring! Good luck with the propagation. Layering is also a great method for propagating plants, although I do love rooting hormone. Great stuff. 🙂
I am looking forward to hearing about your little cuttings’ progress in future posts!
How timely! I was just looking up how to propagate blueberries yesterday, and you did exactly what my internet sources said to do. Now to talk that neighbor into letting me prune his bushes…
Mary – I’m surprised I did it right! I still haven’t had time to research it on my own, but it’s reassuring to see it matched what you read. I’ve just been crossing my fingers 🙂
A few years ago I used the twigs leftover from pruning our red twig dogwood (shrub) to provide stakes/support to new seedlings in the garden. At the end of the season I found they had rooted! I think that’s a two-fer.
Lelo, thank you for the use of two-fer. Far under-used, but hilarious every time I hear/say it.