If you are looking for an easy way to quickly increase your plant stock, or if you just want to root a cutting for a friend I will quickly walk through the methods for doing so, based on what type of plant you have. When reproducing semi-hardwoods, hardwood, or softwood cuttings, rooting can be very easy and rewarding if done correctly.
For cuttings from semi-hardwood plants like clematis choose young growth that hasn’t quite ripened. Trim the plant about 5 cm below a leaf node where the stem is bulging and just above the same node. Leave the leaf on the node, and split the stem in two pieces down the center. Insert the half-stems into your potting mix up to the bud. Water your cutting, and keep this in a well- lit warm place.
For hardwood cuttings such as roses, gooseberries, and apple, In late autumn, after all the leaves have fallen, choose a ripe branch from the current year’s growth. Remove the soft tip above a leaf node and cut just above another node, leaving about 5 nodes in between the ends. The size of these cuttings will vary greatly. Large fruit tree cuttings could be over 2 ft. long, while weigela cuttings will only be about 4 in. With your spade, make a hole in the ground appropriate for the size of your cutting,and put about and inch of sand in the bottom. Fill the hole with good topsoil and your cutting should become a new plant by spring.
Softwood cutting will be the easiest to root. Some plants, especially succulents, barely need any prompting to sprout roots. The best method, however, is to take your cutting from new tip growth just below a node, remove the lowest pairs of leaves and insert in a pot of pre-fertilized potting soil. Or, if you have a seed starting kit with rooting media, you could just insert your cutting into this. Make sure you keep the cutting warm and moist. You may see new growth within days.
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Planting a rock garden is one of those projects that really allows the gardener to become an artist. Texture and color are paramount when planning a rock garden, and beyond a few conventions, the yard becomes an uncarved piece of marble, bracing for the sculptor’s creative touch. The touch must be sensitive, however, because the objective is to simulate an alpine environment. Alpine ecosystems exists in the outcrops above the tree line in mountainous areas. The air is too thin to support trees, and the alpine plants thrive in this cool rocky environment. One cannot create the thin atmosphere, but alpine plant life, rock formations, and soil conditions are within the range of the home gardener’s spade.
The choice of rock largely depends on local availability, and for the sake of thriftiness, local rock is the best choice. Porous rocks like sandstone and tufa are preferred by the plants, limestone works well in rural areas, but will bleach in the more polluted areas near cities. The stones should be of various sizes up to about 60 lbs.(27 kg). The plants will not like anything smooth like granite. According to conventional standards for aesthetically pleasing rock gardens, one never mixes types of rock or uses broken concrete (concrete will also be more susceptible to environmental conditions).
There are a few things to consider when choosing alpine plants for a rock garden. If the intention is to have a garden feature that is interesting throughout the seasons, plants chosen must bloom at various times and provide color when others have faded. Choosing shrubbery and small trees with interesting architecture will ensure that a rock garden is interesting even through the bleakest winter. The trees and shrubs will affect the overall look, providing height and shape to the rock garden. The flowering and carpeting plants will add most of the color.
Early in winter, Helleborus will be the reliable source of color, but as winter winds down, Iris, daffodils, and crocus will start to peak out from behind the stones. Choosing spring plants requires moderation and keeping in mind the overall objective of an architecturally interesting feature– clematis and ramonda are great spring flowers for the rock garden. The summer offers similar abundance of choice, but low-growing bright flowers like phlox and dianthus work best. For fall, carpeting plants, cyclamen, and early crocus plants do really well.
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- Phalaenopsis is an epiphyte (meaning that it grows attached to the branches of trees) native to Asia. In cultivation it is grown indoors, in diffuse light (bathrooms with good air circulation are ideal) and soil that is allowed to dry out a bit between waterings.
- Our plants, the Wayside Kisses, are interspecific crosses, each between 2 and 3 years of age and each unique. That is, they are distinctive enough in color to warrant the 4 separate varieties we have developed, but within each variety not every plant will be identical. This is one of the great merits of the Kisses; each plant is truly unique.
- When talking about these Orchids, their common name is Moth Orchid (because of their shape), and the central swag of color is called the “lip.”
- They bloom along very long (2 foot or so) stems that arise straight from the top of the plant and may be supported or allowed to loll over the sides of baskets, tall flowerpots, and so on. The plant itself is less than a foot high, but the spikes add another 2 feet or so.
- They have broad, flat leaves near the base of the plant.
- Discourage the myth that Orchids should be misted. They do appreciate a humid environment such as the loo, but they need some drying out, and they absolutely cannot survive with wet crowns. If the home is very dry, they can be grown above a dish filled with water and pebbles, but do not encourage customers to mist or otherwise moisturize the plant directly.
- For the same reason that they cannot take wet aboveground growth, they also need very well-drained soil. Avoid potting soils with peat. Special Orchid mixtures are available, but not required.
- Over time they will actually grow a second plant near the first. This is called a keiki and is the beginning of a colony for the lucky gardener!
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Black spot gets a foothold in the garden when leaves stay wet too long, or when a black spot-infected shrub comes into contact with another through crowding in the garden, infected leaves or canes lying in the planting bed, etc. It’s a problem in any climate, and is especially challenging for gardeners in areas with lots of rain or high humidity — the South, Midwest, etc.
Here are some things gardeners can do to keep this troublemaker away:
- use drip irrigation (a soaker hose) or a hand-held hose so that only the base of the Rose gets wet when you water, not the leaves.
- if that’s not an option, water early in the morning to give the moisture a chance to evaporate as the day warms up.
- don’t crowd Roses in the garden. I like the wild natural look myself, but Roses do best when their leaves don’t overlap with other plants a lot. And if black spot does develop, overlapping foliage will spread it like wildfire.
- by the same token, plant Roses in an open setting, rather than a close, confined area like a walled patio. Good air circulation goes a long way in preventing black spot.
- keep the area around Roses very clean and free of fallen leaves.
- Of course, a certain way to prevent black spot is to spray your Roses. There are many excellent black spot sprays that work not only before the fungus appears, but even after you have spotted a yellow leaf or two.
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