Why I Oughta...

Back in the late Summer of 2022, I tried to get a couple of flowering shrub cuttings to root.  One of them - a Limelight Hydrangea cutting managed to get established that first month and put on some growth .   Ever since, I've kept it in a container and somewhat protected - both during Summer (in the shade) and Winter (buried in the ground).  Last Fall - October 2023, I upgraded it from a quart nursery container to a one-gallon nursery pot .   This year, I put the small container shrub in the shade of the understory bed and mostly neglected it.  It put on foliage and then....recently....it put on its first-ever blooms.  Four of them.  Two opened up, two more on their way.   See below for a peek: How nice to find this little treat.  Something I've neglected has FOUND A WAY.  It does, however, appear to be a little 'leggy', so I'm thinking that I'm going to give it a haircut to bring it down in size and try to stimulate a li...

Last month, I provided an update on some of the nursery stock that I've been growing from seeds and cuttings including a look at the (then) one-year-old Limelight Hydrangea that I have been growing from a cutting .   The small shrub has been putting on some size and has two primary trunks that have emerged from the cutting that now have more than eight sets of leaves growing up the (now) 12-inch-or-so shrub.  They were originally planted in a small one quart nursery pot - that you can see below. The roots were peeking out the bottom of the small container, so I figured it was time to upgrade this to a one-gallon pot.  See below for the roots that have emerged after one year in the quart container: Here, below, is the 'after' - the Limelight Hydrangea in its new one-gallon nursery pot that I've put back in the landscape to live out the rest of the growing season.  I'll do what I've done in the past - dig these in the ground an mulch them in - to overwinter....

Along with the Catalpa tree seeds/seedlings work and the transplanting of the Kentucky Coffee Tree seedlings into larger containers, I came across a video that talked about growing hydrangeas from cuttings.  So...I figured....why not give it a try.   The process is pretty easy.  Find a shoot that is still green.  Count down three pairs of leaves and give the shoot a cut.  I then dipped the stem in rooting compound, trimmed all the leaves off - and even trimmed the remaining leaves in half - and stuck it in some potting mix.   I'm trying this with two species:  on the left below (the sad one) is Strawberry Vanilla Hydrangea.  On the right is a Limelight Hydrangea.  I stuck them in a couple of pots that I formerly had Kentucky Coffee tree seedlings that I had on hand:  Below is a closer look at the Limelight.  After I took this photo, I trimmed the top leaves in half to try to give the little cutting a bit less plant to try ...