June is the best month for rooting most plants.
So, it's bragging time. No, it's tip time. Well, honestly, it's neither.
I'll tell you at the bottom what it actually is.
First some pictures, (and maybe just a little bragging).
Picture one is of Royal Hustler ivy. It's a nice, low growing variety. I'm rooting lots to use as a ground cover under maple trees. I've stopped mowing under these trees because of the exposed roots. I don't care for the ivy's name, though. I always think of some con man trying to do an injustice to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 2.
Picture two is of Golden Flame honeysuckle. This thing is beautiful. They can grow to become huge plants, covered with blooms from May til frost.
As shown in picture 2b, I am training these to be standards. They will have the shape of a small tree and I can put them about anywhere.
Picture three is of Euonymus Fortunei Emerald Gaiety. It seems there are two plants with this name. One is a winter creeper. Mine is the upright variety. I love it as a foundation planting, kept at about two feet. It looks as if it were a variegated boxwood.
Picture four is trailing lantana. I always take a few cuttings to keep over winter. In the spring, I put these cuttings in hanging baskets. More flowers for me, or for what I really enjoy...giving them away.
Picture five is of orange moss rose. Though near impossible to see, there are over 150 rootings here. They all came from two 6 cell packs purchased at half price. I will use these to plant a fifty foot border atop a small bank.
Picture six is of more impatiens cuttings and mum cuttings. With all the shady areas I have, the impatiens will come in handy. I may give many of them away. Incidentally, a note about the mum cuttings, these cuttings were taken from a 'garden variety' mum which I overwintered above ground in a pot. Most people believe the garden variety mum cannot successfully be overwintered. Don't you believe it. If you do try to overwinter one of these, you must provide excellent drainage lest the roots rot.
Picture seven, I kept for last. I won't tell you the name of this rose as it is patented. I accidentally broke a piece from the parent plant. Rather than throw it away (I would never do such a dastardly thing, patent or no), I rooted it.
What is a bit unusual about this rose stem rooting, is that I bought the parent plant this spring, broke the piece off this spring, and rooted that piece this spring. And now, late May, it has bloomed! This is a first for me, and People, you can believe me when I say, 'I am happy!
Now, as to the purpose of this post. It's not a tip nor a bragging post. It is to offer a word of encouragement. To those of you who would say 'I don't have a green thumb, I can't root anything', my reply is, 'Nonsense'!
I am no horticulturist, not even a master gardener. I have had no training, formal or otherwise, in plant propagation. All I have is a love for this ship and a love for much of the vegetation growing on it.
That love extends to sharing the more desirable species and their varieties. Just yesterday, I gave several large blackberry plants to a lady from West Virginia who answered my ad in Freecycle. The plants were blooming. Some were beginning to bear. She told me her sons loved her homemade blackberry jam. The look on her face when she saw the size of the plants brought me a feeling of pleasure money can't buy.
Most of you wouldn't want to propagate on a large scale, but if you have a favorite African violet you'd like to root, or as in the case of the lady from West Virginia, a rose bush that belonged to her great, great grandparents, I say 'It can be done'. There is no more pleasure than in giving someone a plant and saying, ' I rooted this just for you'.
So, be a little patient. Each plant has it's own unique set of requirements for rooting. These must be learned. Expect trial and error. Read online. Ask the advice of friends. Call your local ag agent. And you can always ask a question right here on ThriftyFun. You're sure to get a number of replies with what works best for each person answering.
Root Y'all!
I didn't know June was Plant Rooting Month. I've already done some rooting. I cut branches from the neighbor's pear tree, our apple tree and lilac bush.
Well, April, know this. If your neighbor prunes his/her pear tree this Fall, or if you prune your apple tree or lilac bush this Fall, you can root those pruned cuttings over Winter. You read right. That's not a typo. Here's how you do it.
Be careful planting ivies under the maple trees that the ivies don't climb the trees. Some ivies can strangle branches, or completely smother the crown, or stop the tree from breathing. If the Maples are Norway Maples, the shade may be too intense for even ivies to grow. Raising the crown (i.e. removing some of the lower branches) can bring more light to the ground and allow the growth of low growing shade tolerant ground covers - not grass, that never need cutting.
Thanks, Brent
But these 100 year old trees are already covered with ivy, and I love it. I do keep the ivy thinned, and I maintain a high canopy to the trees.
