David Hill30/4/04 12:20

Can anyone tell me how to succeed with camellia cuttings, they are one of
the few plants that seem to defy all my attempts at propagation.

Rays says take nodal shoot cuttings 4" long of the current year's growth in
June or July. Scrape a bit off the bottom of the cutting to 'wound' it and
put it into moss peat. Keep them under mist or on a warm bench with plastic
over them if you haven't got misting. Good luck! Ray reckons they take
around 7 weeks to strike and says he thinks the moss peat is important. I
think they can be a bit tricky and temperamental but wonder if timing has a
lot to do with it. A customer brought us in a branch of a precious old
variety of hers last year. Cows had got into her garden and trampled the
Camellia to death. Unhappily it was earlier in the year and despite Ray's
best efforts, not one cutting took.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)