too broad a question ...

it all depends on the what plant.. google common names for latin names..

then put 'propagation of' in front of the latin..

and google again ...

as to the hormone.. i use it for the included fungicide [?] ...

rooting woody plants.. is more about timing of the cutting.. as much as anything else.. some root on new wood.. some on old wood.. some in between .. etc ...

why are you adverse to rooting hormone ... all plants have hormones ... this isnt dna slicing or anything.. it just an overload of otherwise natural hormones.. to encourage root growth .. rather than vegetative growth ...

good luck

ken

As ken says, how easy a shrub is to grow from cuttings depends on the shrub. Some are stupidly simple, while some really resist rooting. Nobody 'has to' use rooting hormones. People managed to propagate shrubs for centuries, even millennia, before hormones were ever dreamed of. I've never used them because I am a cheapskate and don't need to do much propagation. YMMV.

p.s. I've never rooted lilac but weigela will grow from a twig stuck in the ground and forgotten about for a few months.

Even within a genus, there can be difficult and easy types. For example, some roses are so easy, they can propagate themselves. Others require exactly the right age wood, exactly the right rooting hormone, specific temperatures, and sacrifices to the gods of horticulture to root.

Thanks for all of the information. I don't have a problem with rooting hormones, but I was just curious if propogation of healthy plants could be done without them. I will probably try to propagate lantanas and mums from cuttings, and I may eventually try to propagate weigelas. Anyway, thanks again for all of the helpful info.

all mums are propagated thru cuttings ...

and its as easy as sticking them in moist media ... tenting .. and waiting ...

in fact.. to shape a mum for the big fall show.. you are supposed to grow them to about 6 inches.. then cut off three ... then to 9 inches.. and cut off 3 again .. etc ... thereby creating the big plant you want in fall ... and making them stout so they dont flop ...

and then you can root all the pieces you cut off ... and i doubt you need hormone with these .... just make a clean slice with a razor blade at 45 degrees .. and stick them ...

good luck!!!

ken

Wow! mums sound about as easy to grow from cuttings as tomatillos. Thanks for the info.

Plantingman, I propagate a lot of woody shrubs from both soft and hardwood cuttings, depending on the type of plant and what is recommended (Dirr is a great resource; unfortunately he doesn't cover a lot of the plants that we grow out here - he notes that weigela is one of the easiest plants to root from cuttings, lilac is difficult). Everyone has given you good advice so far - just remember that many shrubs take a long time to root - sometimes up to a year! - and so you have to be patient and give the cuttings the proper environment while they are rooting. Generally even the slow ones form a large callus pretty quickly so you know that something is happening. I use rooting hormone mostly because if I am going to spend that much time, I want to increase my chances of success. Also, I often will root cuttings taken from other's gardens or even, in some cases, public gardens (always with permission) and I don't know if I'll get another crack at the mother plant. Rooting shrubs from cuttings is immensely satisfying - I just had the fun job yesterday of setting out about a dozen #1 Rhamnus that I had set as cuttings about a year and a half ago. Good luck and have fun with it!

Here is a link that might be useful: Form and Foliage