l started growing hydrangea trees after you showed us how to propagate hydrangeas. What I've learned was that you can grow them like single node hardwood cuttings, but the cuttings will be longer. Take your cuttings after winter but before they break dormancy. Cut your stem as close to the base as possible because the length you cut will be the length of the trunk forever, the cutting will not grow in length after you cut the stem to make a tree. You don't have to trim the bottom of the cutting after you cut it from the main plant to freshen it up because trimming the cutting will affect the height of your tree.The stem will grow in circumference but not in length after you cut it off the main plant. Just like single node cuttings, the leaves will appear before the roots. Trim the leaves off the stem except for the cluster of nodes at the top of the cutting. This is where your branches will form to create your tree. Place the cutting in 100% shaded area and keep the soil moist . It will grow into a tree. To make a perfect straight tree , tie a straight piece of wood on the side to train it to grow straight. To make a smooth trunk, file down the nodes , so when the tree becomes mature, the trunk is smooth and anesthetically pleasing and you can sell them for more money. Making a hydrangea tree is just as easy as growing single node hydrangea cuttings. If you see any variety of hydrangea trees , it's a Panicle Hydrangeas. You can take long cuttings off of those trees and make hydrangea trees from them, too. All Panicle Hydrangeas can be made into trees. This spring, l will be trying to make Macrophylla Hydrangea trees. It's possible because l seen a Macrophylla Hydrangea tree before in someone's landscape.
@Emily Towne limelight hydrangea are Panicle Hydrangeas. Limelight Hydrangeas are excellent to make hydrangea trees from. Any Panicle Hydrangea are excellent to make trees from.
When is the best time to take hardwood cuttings and how long will it take for them to root out? Do you leave them outside during winter? I am in Atlanta, zone 7b. Thanks for your input,
@Liem Nguyen The best time to take hardwood cuttings is late winter/ really early spring before leaves start to leaf out. Keep the hydrangea cuttings outside in the shade until roots start to grow.
Another awesome video on limelights🌱 I love seeing the steady traffic going by your nursery 👍 I bet they are watching to see what you are doing and when you are going to open up for business 🌱🌱 Thank you for sharing your knowledge and journey with us! 😊
Im glad i found your UA-cam. Ive got each hydrangeas, small still. But im going to propagate a bunch. I practiced a few and they all worked/rooted. Lilacs too. Boxwoods, weigela. All the cuttings i took. I was so happy to see that. Seeing roots, its a Feeling I cannot describe. Im trying lavender this year too. Adding few things. I staryed rows already.
This will be a great addition to your plant selection. I'll be following along to see how well this turns out. In the mean time I'll be starting extra tomato and cucumber starts to trade for hydrangea cuttings with my neighbor. 😊
I will be able to take a lot of long cuttings from hydrangea at my church, so I plan to follow your example and heel them in this winter and hope for roots in the spring, pot them up and keep them shaded so they will grow more roots.
Hi, I’ve been watching your videos almost since the start, yours and others keep me entertained while up-potting. Congrats on bigger space! It’s been 5 years since we bought our few acres for our landscaping business which we are slowly working on retiring to focus more on the nursery which I find more rewarding. It’s hard work and as you’ve said you have to be resourceful and dedicated to make it work. Keep in mind, you and I both are in the process of constructing the nursery while also trying to operate it and build a market for your plants in your new area. That’s 3 different jobs and that’s a lot! At some point the nursery will be built and you will have built a customer base so you can focus on growing plants and making incremental improvements rather than setting up the whole system. Hang in there! The hydrangea experiment is interesting and I’m looking forward to seeing the results. There was one moment in the video that made me say why did he do that which is when you cut the ends off. If that mulch pile was bone dry I could see the possible benefit of cutting off a scarred tip. However, I would expect an outdoor mulch pile to at least be moist meaning you could have had callusing and undifferentiated cells beginning to develop into root cells that you cut off and the process may now be starting over. I’m no expert on this either but I would suggest if you try this again that you leave at least some of them uncut at that stage and compare the results. Also make sure you can keep a plastic covered shade house cool in your climate. In our Oregon dryish summer climate we use mist and fans for evaporative cooling. I’m not sure how effective that is in your region though. Maybe just some ventilation fans will be enough.
I appreciate the tips!! I have stuck them... some cut, mostly uncut. I stuck long ones and short ones. Trying different things. The plastic hoop will have a heavy shade on it and I'll ventilate it pretty well by the time it gets hot
I appreciate your experiment and all the positive comments after it. There are Limelight & Nikki Blue hydrangeas in my church’s landscape that get pruned every year and I am going to speak for the cuttings this year so I can get some hydrangea trees going. Thanks to all! 🙏🏻👍🏼
I have learned so much from your channel. Thank you so much for sharing your journey. I am a plant lover and am in the beginning stages of starting my backyard nursery. I do have a few questions I’d love to ask through inbox that I haven’t been able to find an answer to but outside of that I’m excited to start my own journey. “Just subscribed”
I think you can sort out the most leggy hydrangeas with the least amount of branches when you prune your first year plants and start making standards out of those. Things grow amazingly well under your supervision, they will turn into amazing standard hydrangeas in no time, and will have nice roots. Easier and more fool proof than planting long branches. Interesting idea though
Hello mate. Love the videos of your progress. Totally awesome 😃 Please can I ask why you don't use hormone powders or liquids (dipngrow or say hormoden powder) when doing cuttings. Thanks again for your videos mate 👍 Joe
I ordered a box full of Limelight hydrangea starter plants last year, they arrived all mildewed. I stripped the leaves and pruned them, but have had to toss most. I only have a couple out there now and don't have high hopes for them.
Some of my Limelights grew to over 3’ tall. I sold one and broke off the bloom putting it into the customer’s car. Where the bloom broke off, several new shoots have come out - the beginning of a hydrangea tree! This happened probably a month ago. If I take off the bloom from the other 7 plants that I have saved back because they are tall, would the new growth have time to harden off sufficiently to make it safely through the winter? If not, what can I do to ensure top branching for these other plants that I want to grow into hydrangea trees? Thank you!
what about using coarse sand instead of potting soil...once they root then potted.. Coarse sand with the plastic over and the shade cloth...I am sure u will have more success...
I my area Midwest the Limelight and its sub varieties ,and Oak leaf hydrangeas seem to be the go to Hydrangea in my area seems the heat is the reason ?
Don't know about the heat. It's all about what is hardy in your zone, and that's usually best determined by winter temps. But, those are both excellent hydrangeas that are popular anywhere they'll grow.
Could you have cut each stem into shorter sections, like your dappled willows, and rooted shorter plants? 37° in Massachusetts today, not shorts weather yet
@@savvydirtfarmer they are like 15 cents each. I saw one of your other videos where you said the pots got real expensive this last year. They probably wouldn’t be any good if you had to transplant into a bigger pot but I think I might given a try. It’s 11 bucks for 100 of them
Obviously you can do whatever you want, but I would of started them over as hardwood cuttings to root out and then form it to what you want. Doing them as a 3 foot cutting is too much to try to root out. Hence the low success. You can do longer or bigger cuttings with willows like that but not normally much else. Also it doesn't seem like you used rooting hormone, that would probably up your chances alot. But I still think the cuttings are just too much that long. Still cool though you did that experiment and got some good results out of it.
Thanks for the tips. Rooting hormone? I've tried it with several varieties and could see zero difference. Maybe if I were working in a more climate controlled environment??? I'm going to try some of these as long cuttings and some as shorter cuttings and see how each does.
@@savvydirtfarmer I use hormodine 3 and clonex on my cuttings. I tried one year without and it was a big mistake. I lost 3/4 of my cuttings due to not using any rooting hormone. When I use hormodine 3 my cuttings results are in the 85-95% success rate, were as when I didn't use any at all, I had 25-30% success. The results I got were a big callous ball in the ends and no roots, to eventually just dying. One difference tho that could be, is I've been watching your channel for a while now I know you guys use a misting system, I don't have mine set up yet because I just purchased mine, and I've never used mist. So that could be a variable too. So that leads me to believe if what you say about not using rooting hormone works for you, then the rooting hormone probly works faster at pushing out roots, then just using a mist system. I stick my hardwood cuttings every spring Wich is april-may here, and by August their is usually a full glob of roots already grown and ready to pot up. And so we are on the same page here, I'm not attacking you on how you do stuff, I absolutely love your channel and you guys, I'm just adding in my experience with all this, I've been experimenting with cuttings the past 8 years, and I have done some crazy stuff in the name of "I wonder" lol. I'm just trying to help out where needed. Thanks for your time and knowledge.
@@dreaminggreennursery I didn't take it as an attack at all. Most people who comment here are just trying to be helpful.. there are a few jackwagons and know it alls for sure, but your comment didn't come across that way. I've got a lot to learn. My channel (and this video) really isn't a "how to" channel. It's just how I'm doing things, and, apparently people like to watch it and many have found it to be very helpful to them.I probably know 20% of what I need to know... learning all the rest as I go.
@@savvydirtfarmer I've been doing this for a little while now, and even with my experience, I still get failure. Sometimes you just get a bad batch 🤷 or things are just beyond our control. Me and my wife love watching your videos, not too much in entertainment anymore that is worth watching. Looking forward to the next video.
l started growing hydrangea trees after you showed us how to propagate hydrangeas. What I've learned was that you can grow them like single node hardwood cuttings, but the cuttings will be longer. Take your cuttings after winter but before they break dormancy. Cut your stem as close to the base as possible because the length you cut will be the length of the trunk forever, the cutting will not grow in length after you cut the stem to make a tree. You don't have to trim the bottom of the cutting after you cut it from the main plant to freshen it up because trimming the cutting will affect the height of your tree.The stem will grow in circumference but not in length after you cut it off the main plant. Just like single node cuttings, the leaves will appear before the roots. Trim the leaves off the stem except for the cluster of nodes at the top of the cutting. This is where your branches will form to create your tree. Place the cutting in 100% shaded area and keep the soil moist . It will grow into a tree. To make a perfect straight tree , tie a straight piece of wood on the side to train it to grow straight. To make a smooth trunk, file down the nodes , so when the tree becomes mature, the trunk is smooth and anesthetically pleasing and you can sell them for more money. Making a hydrangea tree is just as easy as growing single node hydrangea cuttings. If you see any variety of hydrangea trees , it's a Panicle Hydrangeas. You can take long cuttings off of those trees and make hydrangea trees from them, too. All Panicle Hydrangeas can be made into trees. This spring, l will be trying to make Macrophylla Hydrangea trees. It's possible because l seen a Macrophylla Hydrangea tree before in someone's landscape.
Great info, thank you! Are you saying to not use limelight to make trees with, only panicle varieties? Just trying to understand, thanks!
@Emily Towne limelight hydrangea are Panicle Hydrangeas. Limelight Hydrangeas are excellent to make hydrangea trees from. Any Panicle Hydrangea are excellent to make trees from.
When is the best time to take hardwood cuttings and how long will it take for them to root out? Do you leave them outside during winter? I am in Atlanta, zone 7b. Thanks for your input,
@Liem Nguyen The best time to take hardwood cuttings is late winter/ really early spring before leaves start to leaf out. Keep the hydrangea cuttings outside in the shade until roots start to grow.
Do you have a video of this 😮
I did similar with lantana, to make them into "trees" which was a lot of fun. Never thought about doing a hydrangea like that. I may try it!
Another awesome video on limelights🌱
I love seeing the steady traffic going by your nursery 👍 I bet they are watching to see what you are doing and when you are going to open up for business 🌱🌱 Thank you for sharing your knowledge and journey with us! 😊
Im glad i found your UA-cam. Ive got each hydrangeas, small still. But im going to propagate a bunch. I practiced a few and they all worked/rooted. Lilacs too. Boxwoods, weigela. All the cuttings i took. I was so happy to see that. Seeing roots, its a Feeling I cannot describe. Im trying lavender this year too. Adding few things. I staryed rows already.
I am anxious to watch these grow! I just love them! Thanks for sharing your ideas!
You are so welcome!
Isnt it fun learning and experimenting instead of sitting wondering what if? Great job and hope you have great sucess. 👍savvy crew
Very true! Thanks so much.
👍
I did this with Dappled Willow one year and really loved them. Looking forward to following your success with the Hydrangeas. Thank you for sharing!
They are super easy with dappled willows.... 100%. These? I'm trying!
I'm so glad things are going in the right direction for you amd the family I'll keep my fingers crossed that it remains to do so
This will be a great addition to your plant selection. I'll be following along to see how well this turns out. In the mean time I'll be starting extra tomato and cucumber starts to trade for hydrangea cuttings with my neighbor. 😊
I will be able to take a lot of long cuttings from hydrangea at my church, so I plan to follow your example and heel them in this winter and hope for roots in the spring, pot them up and keep them shaded so they will grow more roots.
We mainly focus on palms and tropicals here in our backyard nursery but watching you we have bought a hydrangea to be one that we cut from
great!
Hi, I’ve been watching your videos almost since the start, yours and others keep me entertained while up-potting. Congrats on bigger space! It’s been 5 years since we bought our few acres for our landscaping business which we are slowly working on retiring to focus more on the nursery which I find more rewarding. It’s hard work and as you’ve said you have to be resourceful and dedicated to make it work. Keep in mind, you and I both are in the process of constructing the nursery while also trying to operate it and build a market for your plants in your new area. That’s 3 different jobs and that’s a lot! At some point the nursery will be built and you will have built a customer base so you can focus on growing plants and making incremental improvements rather than setting up the whole system. Hang in there!
The hydrangea experiment is interesting and I’m looking forward to seeing the results. There was one moment in the video that made me say why did he do that which is when you cut the ends off. If that mulch pile was bone dry I could see the possible benefit of cutting off a scarred tip. However, I would expect an outdoor mulch pile to at least be moist meaning you could have had callusing and undifferentiated cells beginning to develop into root cells that you cut off and the process may now be starting over. I’m no expert on this either but I would suggest if you try this again that you leave at least some of them uncut at that stage and compare the results. Also make sure you can keep a plastic covered shade house cool in your climate. In our Oregon dryish summer climate we use mist and fans for evaporative cooling. I’m not sure how effective that is in your region though. Maybe just some ventilation fans will be enough.
I appreciate the tips!! I have stuck them... some cut, mostly uncut. I stuck long ones and short ones. Trying different things. The plastic hoop will have a heavy shade on it and I'll ventilate it pretty well by the time it gets hot
Sounds like your on it! Congrats again and good luck on this project and all the new ventures you’re on right now.
I appreciate your experiment and all the positive comments after it. There are Limelight & Nikki Blue hydrangeas in my church’s landscape that get pruned every year and I am going to speak for the cuttings this year so I can get some hydrangea trees going. Thanks to all! 🙏🏻👍🏼
I learned a lot from the comments myself!
Thank you. Prayers over your family and venture. Psalm 91 over all believers.
I have learned so much from your channel. Thank you so much for sharing your journey. I am a plant lover and am in the beginning stages of starting my backyard nursery. I do have a few questions I’d love to ask through inbox that I haven’t been able to find an answer to but outside of that I’m excited to start my own journey. “Just subscribed”
I think you can sort out the most leggy hydrangeas with the least amount of branches when you prune your first year plants and start making standards out of those. Things grow amazingly well under your supervision, they will turn into amazing standard hydrangeas in no time, and will have nice roots. Easier and more fool proof than planting long branches. Interesting idea though
Yep, it's all in the pruning, I believe. Take your cutting and make a leader and just keep after it.
Will be trying some of these as regular cuttings... Some long some short. Yall are convincing me!
Hello mate. Love the videos of your progress. Totally awesome 😃
Please can I ask why you don't use hormone powders or liquids (dipngrow or say hormoden powder) when doing cuttings. Thanks again for your videos mate 👍 Joe
I've tried. Never seen it make any difference at all.
I ordered a box full of Limelight hydrangea starter plants last year, they arrived all mildewed. I stripped the leaves and pruned them, but have had to toss most. I only have a couple out there now and don't have high hopes for them.
And what did the seller say?
Maybe dipping the freshly cut end into the rooting hormone powder will increase the survival chance of those hydrangeas.
just saw these at the garden shop today... price $199.99 WOW
They are expensive!!
Yes. These are cool. I have been growing these in my yard. What do you think you will charge for these?
Use bamboo straws to aerate the soil and add compost tea and worms 🪱
Do you think it is too late to take hardwood cuttings? Things are budding and blooming in South Georgia (8b).
A savvy farmer do you think if you added hormone treatment to the bottom when you stuck them in the mulch, they would get route better?
Maybe. I've tried hormone before and it id nothing. Could be my fault.
Did it work? Would love to see a follow up video. Great job by the way.
Sold 2 last week for $100. Very nice!
Excellent
Some of my Limelights grew to over 3’ tall. I sold one and broke off the bloom putting it into the customer’s car. Where the bloom broke off, several new shoots have come out - the beginning of a hydrangea tree! This happened probably a month ago. If I take off the bloom from the other 7 plants that I have saved back because they are tall, would the new growth have time to harden off sufficiently to make it safely through the winter? If not, what can I do to ensure top branching for these other plants that I want to grow into hydrangea trees? Thank you!
I prune mine back in the winter. No matter what has happened this season, I'm cutting them back so they flush out evenly and fully next Spring.
@@savvydirtfarmer Many thanks, as always!🙏
what about using coarse sand instead of potting soil...once they root then potted.. Coarse sand with the plastic over and the shade cloth...I am sure u will have more success...
That will work!
I my area Midwest the Limelight and its sub varieties ,and Oak leaf hydrangeas seem to be the go to Hydrangea in my area seems the heat is the reason ?
Don't know about the heat. It's all about what is hardy in your zone, and that's usually best determined by winter temps. But, those are both excellent hydrangeas that are popular anywhere they'll grow.
Should some have roots after 8 weeks of sitting in a mulch pile?
They are dormant... it's winter. They are beginning to break dormancy now... just beginning to bud.
Could you have cut each stem into shorter sections, like your dappled willows, and rooted shorter plants?
37° in Massachusetts today, not shorts weather yet
Yes, I think so. I'm doing some as long cuttings and will do some as short... comments here are suggesting shorter, so I'm going to try both.
💚💚
can I take cuttings and attempt to root them now from my green giants and cryptomeria ??? I'm in NC in 7b..can i do it????? thanks a lot Greg
Wouldn’t hurt to try
Is there a update video to this
Have you ever thought about using plastic grow bags instead of pots?
Not really.
@@savvydirtfarmer they are like 15 cents each. I saw one of your other videos where you said the pots got real expensive this last year. They probably wouldn’t be any good if you had to transplant into a bigger pot but I think I might given a try. It’s 11 bucks for 100 of them
i want to grow a wisteria in a standard form
That sounds beautiful!
What do u use to fertilize
Florikan 18-5-12
Is that just for different plants or most all of them
that's all I use
Ok thanks for your time and response
Obviously you can do whatever you want, but I would of started them over as hardwood cuttings to root out and then form it to what you want. Doing them as a 3 foot cutting is too much to try to root out. Hence the low success. You can do longer or bigger cuttings with willows like that but not normally much else. Also it doesn't seem like you used rooting hormone, that would probably up your chances alot. But I still think the cuttings are just too much that long. Still cool though you did that experiment and got some good results out of it.
Thanks for the tips. Rooting hormone? I've tried it with several varieties and could see zero difference. Maybe if I were working in a more climate controlled environment??? I'm going to try some of these as long cuttings and some as shorter cuttings and see how each does.
@@savvydirtfarmer I use hormodine 3 and clonex on my cuttings. I tried one year without and it was a big mistake. I lost 3/4 of my cuttings due to not using any rooting hormone. When I use hormodine 3 my cuttings results are in the 85-95% success rate, were as when I didn't use any at all, I had 25-30% success. The results I got were a big callous ball in the ends and no roots, to eventually just dying. One difference tho that could be, is I've been watching your channel for a while now I know you guys use a misting system, I don't have mine set up yet because I just purchased mine, and I've never used mist. So that could be a variable too. So that leads me to believe if what you say about not using rooting hormone works for you, then the rooting hormone probly works faster at pushing out roots, then just using a mist system. I stick my hardwood cuttings every spring Wich is april-may here, and by August their is usually a full glob of roots already grown and ready to pot up. And so we are on the same page here, I'm not attacking you on how you do stuff, I absolutely love your channel and you guys, I'm just adding in my experience with all this, I've been experimenting with cuttings the past 8 years, and I have done some crazy stuff in the name of "I wonder" lol. I'm just trying to help out where needed. Thanks for your time and knowledge.
@@dreaminggreennursery I didn't take it as an attack at all. Most people who comment here are just trying to be helpful.. there are a few jackwagons and know it alls for sure, but your comment didn't come across that way. I've got a lot to learn. My channel (and this video) really isn't a "how to" channel. It's just how I'm doing things, and, apparently people like to watch it and many have found it to be very helpful to them.I probably know 20% of what I need to know... learning all the rest as I go.
@@savvydirtfarmer I've been doing this for a little while now, and even with my experience, I still get failure. Sometimes you just get a bad batch 🤷 or things are just beyond our control. Me and my wife love watching your videos, not too much in entertainment anymore that is worth watching. Looking forward to the next video.
@@dreaminggreennursery much appreciated. Anytime you've got a tip, feel free to share.
Can you seed that tree in the mail to me?
Sold out. Wish I had more
I do the same thing but with Lavender as an small tree or Dappled Willow
Ooooooo, a lavender tree sounds lovely!
Lavender? Great idea!
@@anniathome Yes, or Rosemary or anything that is woody plant works great.
@@savvydirtfarmer True, its called Topiary and i discovered some months ago, works even with screening trees too, you need to have patience.
Will you Friend me on Facebook? Thanks Dave