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Re: taking cuttings of woody plants, buddleia



Mark Speakman wrote:

> Autumnal cuttings of woody plants can be very successful too, the key being
> to take them after the summer heat and  before leaf-fall.

In addition to leafy cuttings, you also have the option of taking hardwood
cuttings after leaf fall for deciduous plants. From twigs like a pencil or
drinking straw, cut lengths including 3-4 leaf nodes (some plants may already
show buds). Normal advice is to store these over winter in slightly moist sand,
in a frost-free area, and then pot or plant them out in early spring - make
sure to mark them so you know which end is up! A method which has worked better
for me: pot the twigs up immediately in a light sandy mix, and put them
directly into a frost-free cold frame. You can put several twigs in one pot -
try using a bucket - provided you are quick to pull them apart and pot them up
as soon as growth starts (this is where the sandy mix is helpful).

If you have a cold frame or live in a frost-free climate, your leafy cuttings
may become leafless hardwood cuttings! Of course a fleshy stem, once withered,
is lost - but for woody plants, I have learned not to abandon these seemingly
lifeless twigs. My cuttings of myrtle (myrtus communis) lost their leaves, but
when I upended the pot to discard them, I saw healthy roots. In spring they
leafed out - months after I had given up on them. If you are rooting plants
under electric lights, you may not wish to devote space to such long-term
projects under the lights - but try to find a cool, frost-free windowsill or
other cold-frame kind of arrangement for these cuttings.
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