Fleemo wrote:
Wow, Chris, thank you for that extremely thorough response! Of
course, I have yet more questions to ask.
Fill a container with a drain hole with sharp sand. Place it in a saucer that will hold an inch or so of water.
Interesting technique. Does this rooting technique work well with
most other plants, or specifically Butterfly Bushes?
I've come to use it with most of my rooting work. It has greater
success rate for me than rooting things in a jar of water;
particularly, I get a whole lot fewer cuttings that develop some
sort of slimy gunk and die from that. I've found that it also
has another advantage: If you root cuttings in water, and place
the container in a window, the sun will cook the cuttings . . .
the water acts like a magnifying glass. However, if they're in a
pot with sharp sand, as long as you don't put them in a
west-facing window, they can go on one of the window sills and
get sun without having to be schlepped in and out every day.
And, I make a LOT of cuttings . . . I have a potted tree and
bonsai 'forest'.
...so I just always whack them back all the way to the ground. It seems to encourage new growth, and keep the bush from getting leggy.
I'm not sure I follow you here. During the growing season you
wouldn't just cut off the end of a branch after it's bloomed, but cut
the branch all the way back to the ground? Or are you saying don't
bother dead heading, and cut it all the way back at to the ground at
the end of the season?
Yes, I cut the branch all the way to the ground; which usually
stimulates the growth of a new branch with a new flower bud.
I've got a 2.5' x 8' patch that's got 23 butterfly bushes of different sorts in it
Wow, amazing. I bet that's beautiful. So what's the spacing between
each plant? Eight inches or so? And how do you apply your compost?
As a compost tea, side digging each plant, or top dressing the area?
12" laterally, 10" front-to-back. I just top-dress with
compost. I find that, about the time the build-up has reached
the point where it's likely to smother the crowns, it's generally
time to divide anyway. For plants that don't get divided, we
just rake away the top layers every couple of years [flinging it
back on the compost pile, of course]. When we apply compost
during the growing season, we use our handy-dandy compost funnel
.. . . a length of 4" PVC pipe, with a funnel-shaped piece of
sheeting duct-taped to one end. You gently slide the pipe
between the rows at ground level, fill the funnel with compost,
and shake and drag; leaving a trail of compost behind you as you
go.
Chris Owens
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