pegplant

Weigela roots coming out of container

In May I posted an article on propagating plants with stem cuttings. At the end of June, I checked on my cuttings which had been sitting in plastic bags on the deck, in the shade. I opened the bags and discovered that rosemary and weigela cuttings had roots coming out of the bottoms of the containers but the spirea had minimal roots.

I took them out of the bags and placed them in a very shady place and watered them well. I continued to watch and water because even though they had rooted, it was not a lot of roots to bring up the water they would need to compensate for the high rate of transpiration in the summer’s heat. After a few weeks, I moved them to a sunny place on the deck.

rosemary roots coming out of container

For the rest of the summer, I will keep them on the deck in containers. As they grow, I will pot them up in larger pots. In the fall, when the temperatures cool down and the plants have grown large enough to survive a transplant, I will put these in the back of the garden. This place is in full sun and usually I do not water with a hose so they will learn to survive on their own with rainwater. This is much like raising children and sending them off to college, but they will survive and next summer, after their freshmen year, they will thrive.