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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