More Conventional Hedge Cuttings

Over the long weekend, and thanks William and Kate for making this a 4 day long weekend (although Peter really did not seem fussed by your antics! See picture below), it was simply too windy to finish off trimming the hedges. It is possible to cut hedges in higher winds, it's simply not that much fun! Instead to keep things trundling along I decided to take 10 more hedge cuttings, and this time prepare them in a more conventional manner to see which would work better.

So the first lot I took, as described here, were prepared quite crudely by simply adding them to pots with regular garden compost. Nothing special. Simply trim them off the hedge and trim the lower leaves off the cutting and whack them in the soil and give them a good watering. Simple!

The second lot that I have prepared I decided to add a little more gardening science to the mix to see if that would help the process.

So the method for this second bunch of cuttings was as follows:

• Take the cuttings and place them immediately in water.
• Prepare small pots, that are just large enough for the cuttings, with a 50-50 mixture of vermiculite and cutting compost. Give these pots a good water and set them aside to drain.
• A couple of hours later take each of the cuttings and give the rooting end in dip in some rooting gel and then plant into the drained pot.
• Once all are planted give them a good watering and place in a shady warm location.
• Arguably you should then cover these to keep them in a humid environment. I have not done this, but I will make sure that they are kept moist by regular watering.

So that's the job lot. Will keep both sets of cuttings regularly watered and will check back in a month or two to see which lot have faired better. Will most likely post results here! ;-)

Have fun

Cheers

m