Hydrangeas in bloom leave no one indifferent. Every amateur gardener dreams of having at least one or two bushes of beautifully flowering hydrangeas in his garden.
The so-called “colored” varieties are especially popular. large leaf hydrangea, forming many inflorescences mainly or blue shades.
Many hybrids of large-leaved hydrangea have been created with different structure and coloring of large inflorescences.
Winter-hardy and easier to care for; its flowers are initially greenish-white, and towards autumn they gradually acquire an attractive “blush”.
Traditional methods of propagating hydrangeas
Many gardeners propagate hydrangea by layering, but this method relatively unproductive.
To do this, you need to bend the young outer flexible branches from the growing bush and pin them to the ground (in a hole 15 cm deep) with brackets, tying the ends of the branches to pegs. At the very bottom of the hole, on the underside of the shoot, you must first make an oblique cut several cm long and insert a match into the cut; tissue damage will accelerate the formation of roots in this area.
All that remains is to sprinkle the bases of the pinned shoots with a light mixture of soil and peat, and regularly moisten the soil (to save moisture, you can cover the filled hole with film). These cuttings eventually form their own roots, and then they can be separated from the mother plant and planted for growing.
By layering in spring or autumn, you can propagate not only hydrangeas, but also others with flexible shoots. For example, they successfully reproduce by layering: Japanese quince (), , garden jasmine(), and etc.
Hydrangea is often propagated by cuttings, but this is quite troublesome.
Hydrangea seeds are very small (preliminary stratification is not required); they are sown in March.
Hydrangea cuttings are usually carried out in the summer, from mid-June to mid-July.
In cloudy weather or early in the morning, hydrangeas are cut from the bush - annual shoots 10-12 cm long. Lower leaves are immediately removed, leaving a pair of upper leaves with full buds on the cuttings.
Harvested cuttings are tied into bundles for convenience. The lower half of the cuttings is processed for better rooting.
Treated hydrangea cuttings are planted obliquely in a drained nutrient substrate (a mixture of turf soil, peat and sand) to a depth of about 5 cm.
It is advisable to use for rooting hydrangea, which provides plants high humidity air. Otherwise, you will have to spray the rooting cuttings at least once a day, and preferably 2-3 times.
At a temperature of 15-25 degrees, hydrangea cuttings usually take root after a month. Young plants need to be carefully covered before the first winter, protecting them from frost.
As you can see, traditional hydrangea cuttings require a lot of work!
Propagation of hydrangea by planting seedlings
First you need to purchase a strong young flowering hydrangea of your favorite color, which it is advisable to propagate.
A healthy hydrangea with a closed root system (in a pot) develops well over the course of a season; by autumn the plant forms good roots and strong shoots.
At the end of August or September, I dig in (horizontally) loose fertile soil into the entire bush of hydrangea taken from the pot. First, I carefully remove all inflorescences and leaves from the bush.
Important: when completely covering the hydrangea with soil, all shoots of the bush must be mature!
Therefore, before applying the powder, all weak and immature branches from the bush must be cut off. Otherwise, they may rot in the ground, and then the entire buried hydrangea bush may become sick.
When sprinkled with soil, the hydrangea rhizome itself should be buried below the shoots of the bush. That is, you need to lay the hydrangea bush with its roots down in the dug trench, placing it at a slight slope (about 35 degrees).
When the hydrangea bush is correctly placed, I fill the rhizome of the plant with soil and compact it for reliable contact with the roots; I'm watering. I add a little more soil to the rhizome and compact it again.
When the hydrangea roots are securely closed, all that remains is to place each hydrangea branch separately (in a fan) in the trench, and then cover the entire bush with soil on top.
In the spring, when the soil warms up, young shoots will emerge from this completely buried hydrangea bush. As many separate stems - future bushes - with independent roots will sprout as there were buds on the mother bush.
All that remains is to divide the hydrangea bush into sections and plant them.
As a rule, all young hydrangea bushes formed using this method bloom in the same year.
So in a simple way I quickly and without hassle get from one young hydrangea bush two dozen (and sometimes more) seedlings of beautiful, already blooming colored hydrangeas!
With this easy method of propagating hybrid hydrangea, you can immediately, as they say, “kill two birds with one stone”: and reliably protect it from frost in the ground flower buds, and multiply the bush of your favorite plant exponentially.
Petr Samsonovich Kiselev (Istra)
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Hydrangea - beautiful ornamental plant, during the flowering period, saturating the air with the wonderful aroma of honey. With its help, landscape designers design the walls of buildings, arches, and main entrances. She is also beautiful in the summer, when she throws out baskets of white, lilac or pink flowers, and in the fall, when its leaves turn bright yellow, so many gardeners have a natural question: how to propagate hydrangea? What ways are there, what is the optimal time frame for this?
Hydrangea can be propagated:
- cuttings;
- layering;
- making a bush;
- seeds.
In practice, cuttings are most often used, since this is the simplest and most accessible method. Moreover, it can be propagated in this way at almost any time of the year! Green cuttings produce roots in sand, water, or light substrate. Lignified shoots also take root well.
Important! The method is applicable to all types and varieties of hydrangeas.
There are some differences in propagation by cuttings in different types bush. Although the standard method is applicable to each of them with varying degrees of effectiveness.
Standard breeding technology
- Green cuttings 7-12 cm long are cut during the summer. For this purpose, choose the fastest growing shoots located on the illuminated side of the bush or tree.
- The lower leaves are removed from them and planted either in sand or in light soil.
- Water and cover with plastic wrap. If there are a lot of cuttings, then they can be planted at an angle of 30-45 degrees.
- Subsequently, the seedlings are ventilated 1-3 times a week, increasing the frequency of this procedure every week, and sprayed with a spray bottle. The substrate usually does not need to be watered, since after spraying the drops falling from the leaves naturally moisten it. After 3-4 weeks, roots appear, after which the greenhouse is removed.
Paniculata hydrangea
The optimal period for cutting cuttings is mid-June. Attempts to root this species later or earlier than this period are less effective. To do this, cut off the lower shoots that do not contain buds. If possible, the cutting is torn off with the heel, that is, with a piece of the bark of the branch from which it grew. The length of the cutting can be any: it does not have to be short, as when propagating other species. The cuts are processed by Kornevin, after which the cuttings are planted in pots with light soil, and sometimes (if the weather is not excessively hot) - directly on the beds.
Hydrangea paniculata can bloom in the first year of life. In this case, be sure to cut off all the buds!
Garden hydrangea
This species has a lower percentage of rooting, so its cuttings must be treated with preparations that accelerate root formation. The most popular of them is Kornevin. You can either place the cuttings in the solution or cover them thin layer powder lower sections. Green shoots cut in summer produce slightly better roots.
The rest of the technology is standard.
Tree hydrangea
Cuttings tree hydrangea, unlike the others, take root well in the fall. To do this, shortly before the onset of winter cold, the tops of mature shoots with 2-3 pairs of leaves are cut off. The lower ones are removed completely, the upper ones are cut in half, and only the petioles are left from the middle ones.
The cuttings are washed in a solution of foundationazole for disinfection purposes, after which they are planted in pots with loose, breathable soil and watered with a weak solution of phytosporin (to prevent rot). Finally, the plantings are covered with a mini-greenhouse or plastic bags and placed on a light windowsill with room temperature air. They are ventilated 2-4 times a week.
They are kept in this form until spring, periodically ventilating and moderately watering. Roots appear within a month. The seedlings grow slowly until they are planted in open ground. On the darkest winter days they will need to be illuminated.
Large leaf hydrangea
This species differs from others in being more capricious when cutting cuttings. Only green cuttings, which are cut between June and September, are suitable for this. It is preferable to do this on cloudy days. Take only the tops of shoots with 3-5 pairs of leaves, which are greatly shortened during planting. All other actions are standard.
How to propagate hydrangea by cuttings in water?
Green cuttings of hydrangea, except for the large-leaved variety, produce roots even in water. To do this, the upper part with 2-4 pairs of leaves is taken from the shoot. The lower leaves are completely cut off, and the rest are shortened. The lower cut of the cutting is immersed in water by 1 cm, covered with a mini-greenhouse or a plastic bag.
It is preferable to select a transparent container for this procedure. It is also important to change the water periodically (every 5-7 days), since when it stagnates, pathogenic bacteria multiply, causing decay processes.
After 3-3.5 weeks, the first roots will appear. When they reach a length of 2-3 cm, the plant can be transplanted into a pot or, in cloudy and cool weather, into open ground.
Cuttings before winter
Hydrangea can even be propagated by winter cuttings.
Stages of winter cuttings:
- In the second half of October or shortly before the winter cold snap, the mother plant is dug up, planted in a pot and placed in the basement. It is advisable to use light soil consisting of 4 parts turf soil, 2 parts humus, 1 part peat and 1 part sand. There the bush should stand at temperatures close to street temperatures. As necessary, the earthen ball is watered moderately, but when low temperatures due to slow evaporation, this may not be necessary.
- In mid-January, the plant is brought into a room with a temperature of about +10 degrees. Soon the buds will begin to bloom on the bush. By the end of February, young shoots reach sufficient length for cuttings: they have 3-4 pairs of leaves.
- The cuttings are cut, kept in a root formation stimulator for a day and planted in light, nutritious soil, covered with a mini-greenhouse. They are buried down to the first leaves. Coarse sand can be used instead of soil.
- After a month, the shelter is gradually removed, and young seedlings grow on the windowsill until the start of the warm season. Hydrangea is planted in mid-May in a shaded place.
Preparation of cuttings: technology
If the reproduction path is chosen green cuttings, then cut them only from the top of the shoot.
Less common methods of reproduction:
- By layering. May and September are the optimal time to propagate the plant in this way. The shoot is bent to the ground, fixed with wire and sprinkled with soil at the point of contact. IN next year the branch can be separated from the mother bush and planted on permanent place growth.
- Root growth. Most varieties give root shoots, which can be separated from the main rhizome in the fall with a shovel. It is recommended to grow the young shoot in the garden for the first year, paying special attention to it, and then it can be planted in a permanent place.
- Dividing the bush in early spring before the buds open. The plant is watered abundantly, dug up, root system cleared of soil. The bush is carefully divided into 2-3 parts and planted.
- Seed propagation Hydrangeas are used very rarely and only for breeding purposes, since the resulting plants do not always inherit the decorative characteristics of the mother bush. In addition, seedlings from seeds can be planted in open ground only in the third year! The procedure is standard: seeds are sown in shallow containers on the surface wet soil, sprayed with a spray bottle and covered with glass or a mini-greenhouse. Shoots appear in a month. The glass is being removed step by step. After another month, they are dumped into larger containers and grown in greenhouse conditions 2 years.
Anyone can propagate hydrangea from cuttings. Cuttings – the best option for amateur gardeners. Thanks to this simple and reliable method everyone can have this wonderful queen of gardens.
Hydrangea is a shrub from the hydrangea family with stunning beautiful flowers, for which they are especially loved by landscape designers and owners of flower shops involved in the sale of bouquets and flower arrangements, and ordinary flower growers. There are several ways by which hydrangeas are propagated: cuttings, layering and suckers, dividing the bush and even seeds. Among them, the vegetative method - using lignified or green cuttings - is the most common, and gives the highest survival rate of young plants.
propagation by cuttings in autumnIf you decide to start preparing hydrangeas in the fall, be prepared for the fact that you will need to do more than just cut suitable cuttings, but also to preserve young plants in room conditions until spring. In this case, cuttings proceed as follows:
- In the fall, before covering adult plants for the winter, cuttings are taken from them. In this case, you should choose only strong, well-developed shoots. Each cutting should contain two leaf nodes. The cutting line should run (both above and below) obliquely and at least 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.
- For disinfection purposes, prepared cuttings are soaked for about an hour in a solution of foundationazole. Then the upper cut of the cutting is treated with brilliant green, and the lower cut is sprinkled with a means to stimulate the formation of roots.
- 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.
- The container with the cuttings is wrapped in a kind of greenhouse, and placed in a bright place. Several times a week, your “greenhouse” needs to be ventilated and the soil moisture checked. As young leaves take root and form, the time spent by the cuttings in the open air is increased, while carefully monitoring to ensure that the shoots do not dry out or freeze. In winter, you can organize additional lighting 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 emerged from dormancy and begins to grow green shoots. The earlier you start cutting cuttings, the more branched the young plants will turn out, and vice versa, later cuttings produce predominantly single-stemmed plants. Planting material It is better to cut from bushes older than 1-2 years: this way the cuttings will be strong, and it will not harm the adult plant. So, propagation of hydrangeas by cuttings in the spring involves the following stages.
The method that Elena POTAPOVA, an experienced flower grower and plant collector from Moscow, will tell you about, is usually used in the fall. But those who want to experiment can do this kind of reproduction now. To maximize the positive effect, it is important to consider several factors.
You can cut cuttings only if there have not yet been severe, prolonged frosts in your area.
Remember: now the rooting rate of cuttings will be no more than 10%, so stock up big amount planting material.
And, of course, strictly adhere to the requirements below for the nuances of the process.
Large-leaved hydrangea, or garden hydrangea (H. macrophylla=H.hortensis). grown in gardens middle zone both in open ground and in containers. But the most beautiful hydrangeas I happened to see it in Scotland.
This is not surprising, because natural conditions Here are the best fit for this plant: wet air, absence of heat in summer and severe frosts in winter, well-drained soil. The huge bushes at Edinburgh Botanic Garden were full of flowers at the end of September (pictured above), and the hydrangea border at Holyrood Royal Park was a sight to behold!
ABOUT CUTTINGS
They should be of small thickness, about 8 mm in diameter, preferably with two nodes.
It is better to cut from bushes that have been growing in the garden for at least a year - cuttings from young plants may not overwinter well.
It is useful to use root formation stimulants and preparations against root rot; you can add a Glyokladina tablet to the soil mixture.
Planting and rooting hydrangea cuttings: 4 steps
1. I plant the cuttings in a container in light, loose soil: a mixture of turf soil, peat, sand (2:1:1), on top - a layer of sand 3-5 cm thick.
2. I put it on the container plastic bag Having tied it, I put it on the windowsill.
3.Two or three times a week I ventilate and check the condition of the soil. It should be slightly damp at all times.
4. I also keep an eye on the cuttings - I remove the rotten ones. But if they just darken, I try to revive them: I wash them with laundry soap and plant it again.
Roots on the cuttings form within a month. If the upper buds swell and then the leaves begin to bloom, it means that rooting is taking place “ the right course" Until you see this, do not remove the plastic cover from the plantings.
Caring for rooted hydrangea cuttings
- They need to be watered regularly and the leaves sprayed on them at least once or twice a week.
- It is useful to illuminate with a fluorescent lamp.
- At this time, it is important to avoid sudden changes in temperature: a daily jump of 5-7 degrees may be enough for fragile plants to die.
- You can keep pots with rooted hydrangeas in winter in a dry cellar at a temperature of +5-10 degrees.
- With the onset of warm spring days, I take the cuttings out into the garden and gradually accustom them to fresh air and sunlight.
- I plant it in open ground.
- It is better to spend the first wintering of the cuttings under cover from a cut plastic bottle.
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In mid-July, the luxurious paniculata hydrangea blooms. And when the annual growths become lignified and the leaves grow to natural sizes, you can start rooting its cuttings.
It is better to take them from an adult bush (at least 4 years old), since cutting cuttings weakens it and slows down its development. The day before harvesting, water the plant generously so that it is saturated with moisture. Cut the shoots early in the morning sharp knife from the bottom of the bush (without flower buds!).
Procedure for working and caring for hydrangea paniculata seedlings
Cut the shoots into cuttings with 2-3 internodes. But if necessary, you can root with one. Under the base of the lower pair of leaves, make a lower cut obliquely, and an upper one above the upper pair of leaves.
Remove the lower leaves and shorten the rest by half. Immediately place the cuttings in a container with a solution of a root formation stimulator (for a day) or with plain water. w The rooting substrate can be prepared from leaf soil, coarse sand and peat (1:1:1). Pour it into a container, carefully level the surface, lightly compact and moisten.
Immediately plant cuttings into it, deepening it to the top buds. To prevent moisture from evaporating, it would be good to cover the container plastic film and place in a semi-shaded place, shaded from direct sunlight.
Keep the soil moist. As soon as young leaves appear, gradually lift the film, accustoming the plants to open air, and then remove it completely.
After 20-30 days, roots appear. Now it is important, without destroying the root ball, to transplant the seedlings into a container bigger size or immediately - to a permanent place. f Hydrangea is not averse to eating, especially since the seedlings develop quickly.
Therefore in landing hole or in the container you need to put compost, peat, turf soil, coarse sand (1: 0.5: 1: 0.5) and a small handful of mineral fertilizers.
To better strengthen the root system, place the containers with seedlings for two weeks in a greenhouse or in a shady corner of the garden (close to each other) and cover with spunbond or mulch the top with peat. This will protect them from drying out.
In the first year, feed with mullein or bird droppings infusion, diluted with water (1:20; 1:30, respectively)
Preparing hydrangea cuttings for wintering
The first winter is very hard time for cuttings.
If the seedlings are in containers, you can bring them into a cold greenhouse and dig them in. Or put it in the basement and monitor the humidity.
You can bury the container in the ground in the garden or cover it with spunbond.
Seedlings planted in open ground should be mulched for the winter and covered tightly.
And in the second year, you should cover the plants with dry leaves before wintering. But thirdly, these are fully mature plants, and they can be left to overwinter in the garden without fear.
