Hydrangea cuttings

How to take hydrangea cuttings

One of the easier plants to propagate is a hydrangea from stem cuttings. At the end of the summer you can take cutting from the plants that have been in your garden over the summer to produce plants for use next year.

Hydrangea cuttings stage by stage

• Remove a cutting with about 2 or 3 leaf joints from the top. Cut the stem just below a leaf joint and remove the lowest leaves to produce a bare stem that can be inserted into the cutting compost.
• If the cutting has any flower heads on it, they should be removed so that the cutting directs its energy into rooting.
• The compost, ideally John Innes No. 1 compost, should be a mixture of 50% John Innes No. 1 and 50% sand or perlite. This will produce compost that is open so as not to rot the stem before it has rooted. Alternatively, the cuttings can be rooted in a small container of water.
• Place three cuttings into 75 mm pots and water them in. They will need to be placed on a windowsill or in a glasshouse. The most important consideration is to make sure that the temperature is even throughout the day, i.e., not becoming cold at night and too hot during the day.
• The cuttings should root in about 10 to 20 days. Once rooted, they will need to be transferred into their own pots, 75 mm to 100 mm, using John Innes No. 1 compost.
• Once the cutting has rooted, you will need to pinch out the top to encourage the new plant to produce side shoots.
• In the first winter, the new plants are best kept in a glasshouse to protect them from frost and then planted out in the following spring.