Propagation of hydrangeas by cuttings: mechanism of action

Hydrangea are shrubs from the hydrangea family with stunningly beautiful flowers, for which they are especially fond of landscape designers, flower shop owners selling bouquets and flower arrangements, and ordinary flower growers. There are several ways in which hydrangeas propagate: cuttings, layering and offspring, dividing the bush, and even seeds. Among them, the vegetative method - with lignified or green cuttings - is the most common, and gives the highest survival rate of young plants.

If you decide to start preparing hydrangeas in the fall, be prepared for the fact that you will need to not only cut suitable cuttings, but also keep young plants indoors until spring. In this case, the cuttings are as follows:

1. In autumn, before covering adult plants for the winter, cuttings are cut from them. In this case, you should choose only strong, well-developed shoots. Each cutting should contain two leaf nodes. The cutting line should pass (both above and below) obliquely and not less than 1 cm from the kidney. The lower leaves are removed, leaving a small tail of the petiole at the renal sinus, and the upper ones are cut in half.
2. For the purpose of disinfection, the prepared cuttings are soaked for about an hour in a solution of foundationol. Then the upper cut of the cutting is treated with brilliant green, and the lower one is sprinkled with a means to stimulate the formation of roots.
3. In a container with loose, fertile soil, holes are made in advance, which can be sprinkled with a composition against the formation of rot. A cutting is inserted into the hole, slightly compacted and sprinkled with earth.
4. A container with cuttings is wrapped in a kind of greenhouse, and exposed to a bright place. Several times a week, your "greenhouse" must be ventilated and checked for soil moisture. As young leaves take root and form, the time spent by the cuttings in the open air is increased, while carefully monitoring that the shoots do not dry out and freeze. In winter, you can organize additional illumination of shoots

If you decide to start preparing cuttings in the spring, then you need to get down to business in March-April, when the hydrangea has just come out of dormancy and begins to grow green shoots. The sooner you start cutting cuttings, the more branchy young plants will turn out, and vice versa, later cuttings give predominantly single-stemmed plants. It is better to cut planting material from bushes older than 1-2 years old: this way the cuttings will be strong, and it will not harm an adult plant. So, the propagation of hydrangeas by cuttings in the spring involves the following steps.