Hydrangea quercifolia

03/08/19 - more prop updates. Success with softwood cuttings (or soft tip cuttings as some call it) on Hydrangea quercifolia. Was in trays of 50/50 peat and perlite but I’ve now potted these on into a mix of 66% compost, 33% perlite. I should have taken I pic of the roots to show you, as they were very well rooted. I think I took these in May 🤔 (from college) #hydrangea #hydrangeaquercifolia #hydrangea-quercifolia #softwoodcutting #cuttings-softwood #cuttings-hydrangea

Softwood/softtip cuttings are those which are the very early growth in a shoot, not ripened at all, and is most flexible. You don’t remove the growing tip (unlike in semi-ripe cuttings where you do) and they are prone to water loss very quickly, so you tend to take them quite early in the morning when shoots are most turgid and before the heat of the day starts to cause water loss. They will almost always need covering with a bag or in a propagator till they have rooted.

Fab! Mine flowered for the first time this year and it’s gorgeous. I didn’t grow it on myself though, you should be super proud of these!

Very pleased Val, is taken some in April too but I didn’t quite get the watering technique right on any of my cuttings and I lost about 100 cuttings. My tutor corrected me though and we did another collection of material in April and I don’t think I’ve lost a single one yet (🤞🏼🤞🏼) @valjones-hughes

Have you planted them in the ground?

Hi @Flicka 👋🏼, no not yet. These cuttings have rooted but I prefer to wait till they are a bit bigger and more established before planting them out in the ground.

I have 3 starts, I put 2 in the ground today. We will see how they do.

Fingers crossed they will be ok for you 😊 - hopefully mine will be big enough by the spring @Flicka