Friday, November 4, 2022

Hydrangea Cuttings - November 4, 2022


In early September, during my 8 days of retirement, I cut some hydrangea limbs away from our HVAC unit.  I chopped the limbs into sections, 2 leaf nodes per section, and planted them (one leaf node under the dirt, one above) in Solo cups.  I put the Solo cups in clear plastic bins that would hold water so I didn't have to tend the cuttings every day and set the bins in the back yard near the house where I could see them and remember to tend them.  

In theory, the bins were a good idea.  But one day it rained a gully-washer, and the next time I checked on the cuttings, some of the cups were floating sideways in the bins and most of the cuttings had come out of the dirt.  I replanted them and brought a couple of bins onto the back porch so that I could keep a better watch on them.  (They're not currently looking so great).

I worried what to do with them this winter.  Their root systems aren't very developed.  Would they be better off in the ground before winter?  Should I leave them in the cups?  Put them in bigger pots?  Bring them inside before temps drop below freezing?

A Facebook gardening group gave me an answer that seems logical to me.  They said to set the cups on the ground and cover them with leaves.  

I did that this afternoon.  Piled the leaves high.

Now I'm worried that the #(!)@! armadillo will dig them up.


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