How can I graft my hydrangea bush? I love it and want to plant more in my yard - I don't know where to begin!

Question

Also, any advice on pruning the hydrangea would be appreciated. I cut it back in early spring this year. Now the flowers are awesome but there are a million of them and it's looking overgrown.

Answer 1

You needn't graft it,wait until growth starts up next Spring.

Select a ripe,unflowered stem.Using a sharp craft knife,carefully cut just below the second pair of leaves,at the leaf joint.Remove the lower leaves,to give a cutting some four inches long.

Dip the cut end into water,then into rooting powder.Shake off the surplus and using a pen to make suitable holes,insert the cutting in JI (or similar ),rooting compost,one cutting to a 2 inch pot.

Keep the compost moist and the pot on a warm windowsill,roots will form in a few weeks and you can make new plants to your hearts' content!

Answer 2

By a process called layering. Bend a stem over and peg it to the ground with a bent wire, and cover it with about 2 inches of dirt, leaving it intact to the parent plant. Keep it moist. After about a month, check to see if it has rooted. When it has, dig it up, sever it from the parent plant, and you have your new plant. You can do this with as many stems as you wish.

Prune in very late fall, or winter after going dormant. Never prune more than 1/3 of the bush.

Check this site.....

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/h...

There is also a process called"air layering". It is basically the same except instead of burying the stem, you scrape a little of the bark off one side of the stem (about 1 inch long), apply a little rooting hormone, then wrap a 3 inch ball of very moist spaghnum peat moss around the wound, and wrap all that in plastic. Proceed as the other method.