I gave a Laurel hedge a good cutting back last week.
Of course I saved some of the trimmings to make hedge cuttings. There are over twenty of them.
Normally I place my cuttings in my homemade compost/well rotted fym.
I thought I would use sand this time for a rooting medium. I don't use sea sand because this contains salt and the plants will not like it.
Apparently Laurel is poisonous to animals and us human folk. It gives off a Cyanide gas if you chip it in a wood chipper.
I know if you don't cut it back it can grow up to forty feet high. It also is not very fond of living next to the sea. Oh well!
It will be good to compare rooting with compost and with sand.
This time of year is a good time to take cuttings. Just dip them in organic hormone rooting powder and plant them in a pot and overwinter them in a greenhouse or polytunnel. All they need is a drink now and again.
It's a good and cheap way of making hedging for nothing.
Anyone else making hedge or shrub cuttings at the moment?
I've found sand good, especially if gritty enough. I've never used rooting powder.
ReplyDeleteYes GZ it works for me. So does my homemade compost but this requires regular weeding like all garden plants do. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI need an instant hedge. Must try some cuttings if I can find a friendly hedge owner.
ReplyDeleteBare rooted hedging is very cheap to buy from November to March JayCee. If I was you I would plant an hedge that flowers. Rugosa is a rose seaside hedge that flowers and is salt tolerant. Hypericum is very nice with its yellow flowers. Or perhaps Fuchsia which thrives I the IOM, Ireland and I have seen it in Devon and Cornwall. If you lived nearer I would give you some Griselina hedging.
ReplyDeleteI always keep in horticulture sand, I do use it in my carrot tubs, to lighten the soil.
ReplyDeleteHi Marlene. I am too much of a tight wad Womble gardener to buy horticultural sand. River sand is good if yo can get it and doesn't contain sea salt. I use what ever medium I have lying around. Now is a great time to make cuttings for free.
ReplyDeleteCould organic hormone rooting powder be an alternative to expensive IVF treatment?
ReplyDeleteMaybe YP. It makes plants sprout roots.
DeleteOur next door neighbour's laurel is indeed 40' high. And it falls over on to us. Fortunately it's on our NW side. We shop it off and use it to make maintain a dead hedge.
ReplyDeleteGosh that is high Tasker. It's easy to take cuttings of Laurel. You could plant them in the dead hedge and they will probably root.
ReplyDeleteLooking again, I now think 30 feet. There are wood pigeons in it. It is at the point where about 8 gardens meet around a curve, and everyone hates the stuff.
DeleteIt does create privacy and natural habitats. I also have bamboo plants.
DeleteOur local authorities have asked - not (yet?) ordered - people to get rid of laurel hedges, too invasive, not at all insect/bird friendly etc., so it's slowly disappearing. Often replaced by juniper, which grows really well here and looks good.
ReplyDeleteJuniper does look good Sabine. Griselina (New Zealand Privet) is very popular in West Cork and Kerry. I make cuttings of it every year. It's easy to propagate from cuttings.
ReplyDeleteNo. But I did plant two lilacs, one hibiscus, a forsythia and a hydrangea bush at the new house.
ReplyDeleteYou'll have to take some photos of that hedge!!
ReplyDeleteVery nice Debby. I managed to get some Hydrangea cuttings to root recently. I am always propagating new plants.
ReplyDeleteI will when I finish cutting it down Linda.
ReplyDeleteOne of my grandmother's told me her mother used to put a laurel leave in her custards to flavour them. Remarkable anyone survived her cooking!
ReplyDeleteYou couldn't make it up. Unbelievable!
ReplyDeleteI think there is a lady on the IOM that requires a shrubbery or 20.
ReplyDeleteP collects and takes cuttings Debby.
ReplyDelete