Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Forsythia...

When forsythias bloom spring is here...the yellow flowers bloom quite early making it easy for me to forget about the short days of winter.

Forsythia are very low maintance and easy to start from cuttings...last summer I snipped a few branches from my neighbours bush, I put them in a bucket of water and well, I know it seems too easy, but I just left them there for a year, making sure the bucket never ran dry, that's it. Only one of the four branches grew roots but that's OK, I'll snip some more this year, in the bucket I place all sorts of cuttings, some take some don't, but it's so effortless that it'w worth a try.

This is my "cuttings bucket", at the back of the house, out of sight and the hot sun. I have a cutting from an unknown bush which growns outside my diner but love the berries...I hope it roots!


As you can see the forsythia grew quite a large root ball over winter.


An a bonus...a new shoot.


I planted the cutting in some compost and new soil at the edge of the yard hoping to create a privacy fence.


The hot dry summer may kill your new cuttings so it's best to plant cuttings in the spring and fall as new plants need lots of water.

3 comments:

Nothing Finer said...

Hi Margaret, This might be Cotoneaster. Here's a link to some info about it: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/139749/cotoneaster

Powell River Books said...

How do you know if a plant will grow from a cutting? Do all plants, or only some kinds? - Margy

Margaret said...

Margy, I know about some plants just by talking to other people. When I was in Britannia Beach I started a rose from a cutting and a local gardener also had a cutting bucket, when she pruned, she would just put her cuttings in water and just waited, didn't cost her anything to try, which I what mostly do. I found this link which you might find very helpfup=l..http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/cepublications/pnw0152/pnw0152.html