I took some Cornus or Dogwood cuttings yesterday.
I like it for it's red bark in winter. It's very hard wood and Jesus's cross is claimed to have been made from Dogwood.
It's also been used in medicine instead of quinine.
Butcher skewers use to be called 'Dags' or 'Dogs' or even skewer wood.
Dogwood are native to North America, China and Europe.
I make new Dogwood cuttings every year. I take my secateurs or loppers and take pencil ✏️ sized cuttings and place five or six of them in a black plastic plant pot full of sand or my homemade potting compost.
Black plastic plant pots reflect heat and soon warm up the soil.
You can also plant them straight into a slit trench in the veg plot and leave them until next Autumn.
I like to keep mine in my ow portable plant pots.
It's a good way of getting shrubs for free.
Dogwood Cuttings sounds like an old branch line station in the Home Counties doesn't it?
Where do you plant the dogwood? Is it a hedge or maybe a windbreak
ReplyDeleteThe red bark is good for brightening up a gloomy Winter bare patch. Keep busy in that polytunnel Dave.
ReplyDeleteIt likes damp ground and it's related to Willow Linda. People use it for borders and windbreaks and it's deciduous displaying red bark in winter. People cut it right back every spring. I use it for marking my potato rows. It's easy to propagate.
ReplyDeleteYes it is JayCee. Even using the branches, twigs in floral winter bedding displays. It's David's Day today. So I can choose my favourite tea. Think it's going to be Vindaloo me thinks.
ReplyDeleteIn answer to your question - No it doesn't, it sounds like the name of a band that specialises in Americana - with lead singer JayCee Manx from Northside, Kentucky yodelling like a lonely Austrian shepherdess.
ReplyDelete"Layee odl, layer odl layee oo"
ReplyDeleteTranslated from the Austrian that means, "I'm taking the 9.47 bus to Douglas and I've got my shopping bag!"
DeleteEnglish is such an unromantic language isn't it?
DeleteSpeak it with a French accent and the ladies will come running.
Delete"Veetabix, jam buttee" perhaps?
DeleteI have a couple of plants in corners, where they show up lovely, never tried to raise cuttings, I've cut one back, will save some cutting of the other plant, thanks for the tip, Marlene.
ReplyDeleteThey root easily like willow Marlene. They like a thorough good cutting back like Buddleia do to make them more vigorous and put on a lovely red bark display in winter. Like I said above I use them for marking the ends of my potatoes rows. They also make strong pea sticks.
ReplyDeleteMust try those. The 'dogwoods' i am familiar with grow into small trees and have beautiful flowers in spring.
ReplyDeleteThey are very easy to strike roots and give you new shrubs Tigger's Mum. You can make new plants for free every year if you wish.
ReplyDeleteThere's an awful lot happening in that polytunnel!
ReplyDeleteYes it's filling up River.
ReplyDelete