tiny rooted Rose of sharon leaf cuttings, how do I overwinter

16 years ago

In mid June of this year my young,'Blue Satin' rose of sharon tree leafed out later than normal, and I was able to take four leaf cuttings just prior to when this small tree/shrub, began to produce flower buds.

I stuck them into 6 inch pots fill with a woody type potting soil. They have been rooting under the dappled afternoon shade side of my mature scarlet oak tree and they also had been getting full morning shade from being positioned just west of a privacy fence.

between our rainy spring and summer, along with my watering over the last month of drier weather, they have rooted nicely and produced a few more small leaves. The tallest of the 4, though, is only three inches tall and the shortest is only about two inches tall right now. They have dramatically increased their number of smaller than normal leaves, and two of them even have put on one flower bud, each. I intend to pinch off these flower buds, but also am afraid thin twig like trunks will not be able survive our upcoming winter.

Now that Summer is ending, I am concerned about preparing them for this next upcoming winter. a couple days ago, I moved them to my azalea beds which are planted along the east side of my house. They are fairly sheltered and so far, the days have been cloudy, but on clear days they will begin to receive much more morning sun and nearly full shade in the mid to late afternoon. After two days in their new location, the leaves have darkened some and all four of the young rootings seem happy.

My concern is for how thin their short two inch trunks are. I do not see how only 2/32nds inch, thin trunks will be able to survive the upcoming winter, not even if I bury the pots deeply into the azalea's mulch bed.

Would it be better, this winter if, after sinking them into the bed, I piled a thick 6 inch layer of mulch over their tops. If not; should I, instead, simply find someone who has a greenhouse and is willing to over-winter them for me?

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Comments (5)

georgez5il
16 years ago
Order of preference 1) greenhouse 2) cool spot in house 3) cold frame 4)mulch with leaves or straw......
in any case the soil moisture will be critical to wet & roots will rot to dry & roots will dehydrate & then will die
katrina1
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks, for your thoughts. By cool spot in house; do you mean the garage, or would that be too dark for them? My garage has a large, west facing window that I keep covered with a black-out shade.
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bently on, The easiest way I have found to root hardy Rose of Sharon is to take 4 inch long cuttings of just thickened fairly new stem tips from the shrub, just prior to its setting bloom buds period. Remove all the leaves except the top two or three, and pinch off any suggestions of pre-bloom bud forming bumps that might be found near the top most end of the tip. You should have taken 4 or 5 such tips. Next, insert them into individual, moistened soil, pots that you prefilled with clean well draining potting soil. Press the potting soil firmly around each inserted stem, and sprinkle the pots with more water. Then put all of them under the shadiest side (possibly the Northeast side) under a dappled shade tree's canopy. This will work best if there is also a privacy fence or other similar thing which produces such eastern shade. A covered patio might also provide enough filtered light. keep the pots gently sprinkled. or even misted if you have such a set-up. Making sure keep the soil moist, but not soggy. by late fall your tips should be well rooted enough to repot them into one size up pots and then sink those, pots into a sheltered planting bed. Let the young rose of sharon go dormant and cover them with mulch or straw through the coldest part of the winter. In the following Spring, just before they break dormancy, plant them out into the landscape bed where you want them to continue growing.
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Thanks, I will keep it in the turface until I see more root growth. At this time though it is only a twig, there are no leaves yet. they all fell off when I put the cutting in the turface. I also keep it in a large plastic container with the lid closed. Makes it kinda like a little green house. I open it up every day or so for some fresh air. when I removed the cutting and saw the new roots I also saw some white growth, im guessing mold? I wiped this off and put it back into the turface and it seems to be fine.I think I may have forgot to let it breath once or twice and it got too moist! Thank you again for the great advice. I am hoping now that the roots are forming the roots will grow faster.
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mehearty
16 years ago
Katrina I overwinter cuttings in an unheated garage away from the window. I just heap a little snow into the pots about once a month. I don't see the need for sunlight when plants are dormant. If they were under snow or leaves outside, they wouldn't see much light either. The only point of the garage IMO is to keep them protected from freezing winds & extreme temps. I slowly move them outside for a few hours at a time in shade come spring.

Good luck! I wish I had rooted my blue satin. I always forget!
sydseeds
16 years ago
I'm up here in 'cold country' (my zone 5 is the USA's zone 4) and I stuck about 30 unrooted RoS twigs right into the ground in a mainly shady spot late last summer. I left them be overwinter with no shelter. (Survival of the fittest and 80% survived into rooted little shrubs for me to give away this year).

In a year, we get almost the same number of weeks below zero as we do weeks above zero, so taking our temperature into consideration, don't feel like you have to baby RoS cuttings in the growing zone that you are in.
katrina1
Original Author
16 years ago
Wow, sydseeds that is amazing. Did a blanket of your winter snows come early and cover them for a long period, and then after they broke dormancy in the spring, did the temps stay above 32 degrees F. all during your early spring?

If so, those conditions could be an improvement over what occured over our winter and early spring. Though we did not get as cold as your zone, Our trees and shrubs were stressed by temps swinging back and forth below and above freezing many times during the winter. Then when temps warmed enough for the trees and shrubs to break dormancy the night temps dropped below freezing again. That actually happened in early spring 2006 and twice in spring 2007 with the latter one dropping low enough to be a hard freeze. Since there was no blanket of snow cover during those times, such conditions caused lots of death to many of even our established trees and shrubs.

If you took the cuttings in late summer, the twigs must have been much thicker than mine taken in spring just prior to my shrub beginning to produce bloom buds this year. Is that true? I would be a lot less concerned about mine if their main stems had thickened up some this Summer. Maybe this fall, they can get a little stronger by being out in full morning sun and afternoon shade. This is about the second week for them in the new location, and they do seem to be responding well.

Anyway, thanks again for your encouraging report about how tough the hardy RoS cultivars are even in your much colder zone.

tiny rooted Rose of sharon leaf cuttings, how do I overwinter

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tiny rooted Rose of sharon leaf cuttings, how do I overwinter

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