There are three terms you might benefit from understanding. "Dormant", "soft wood", "hard wood". Dormant in my climate means wood which is removed in late winter/early spring BEFORE the plant begins pushing foliage and flowers. Some years that period seems not to occur, most years, it does. Hard wood is the growth BENEATH that which has most recently flowered. Sometimes it has older foliage on it, others, it doesn't. Sometimes that can be "dormant". Soft wood are the most recent flowering stems, usually those which have recently shed their petals. Wrapping, or "The Burrito Method", traditionally works most successfully with dormant material, though it CAN work wtih hard wood cuttings under optimum conditions. Most often, methods such as the "baggie", "terarium", mist, etc., require soft wood material, that which has recently borne a flower after the bloom has fallen. Dormant and hard wood material is "harder", it won't wilt easily and is usually more durable against harsher conditions. Its buds are more "dormant", requiring more time to mature before being stimulated into growing. Soft wood wilts rather easily as it is "softer", more juvenile. It usually contains more readily available nutrients, hormones, auxins, etc. which push new foliage and flowers. Under ideal conditions, it can often root very quickly. When I volunteered at The Huntington Library, propagating for the sales and gardens, I used soft wood material under their mist propagation set up. A flowering stem which had recently shed its petals could root under the usual summer conditions in the mist table in seven to ten days. Hard wood took several weeks under mist. Hard wood and dormant cuttings over winter in the green houses required three to four months. What is optimum for you to use depends upon a wide range of variables. You can study suggestions from other climates for each method, but you have to experiment with them where you are to determine which works best for you and at what times of the year. A rose breeder friend in Rancho Mirage has his best success in November using soft wood, if that helps. Kim

I am bumping this thread. I have hellebores in two areas of the garden; one with mature plants and the second in an area where I've been scattering seeds occasionally. This year, I found hundreds of babies around my mature plants. I transplanted around 300 of the babies over to the other area and now have collected seed to scatter in the same area. The new area has partial sun. We are in New England. My questions are: 1) Should I scatter the seeds, scatter and rake in lightly, or scatter and then cover with a light layer of something? I would prefer not to pot them and then have to plant them later. (Too much chance of me forgetting about them!) 2) When I see a baby ( around an inch and a half tall, with a 4" root), did that sprout from last year's seed or this year's? And as a followup, is the young plant (around 7-9 inches, with larger leaves), a 2 year old? Thanks, I do love these plants!

The LED lights are from Ebay from a company called LED wholesalers INC. This will be the first time I use the lights for an application other than supplemental light. The lights come in varying wattages but I use the least expensive panels because I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars and I really don't need lights that are that powerful. A 90W LED light is the equivalent of 400-600W HPS light. A mix of red and blue LED's is the best for growth and flowering while white just adds extra brightness. The colour of the light is not very noticeable unless it's in a dark room and the lights run cool/warm instead of hot and are very slim and light which makes them easy to install. I also found some really cool LED aquarium lights that are a strip of lights sealed (water tight) in a tube and are used to simulate moon light at night. I may add two small strips to the inside of the tank to boost the blue portion of the light spectrum under the white panels. I want to see how things grow first but if they look like they need some more light I will invest in some aquarium lights. http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=380108250821&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT I think people could be upset with what they get if they don't do some research. If you want an extremely bright grow light you will have to spend the money. There are 1000W equivalent daylight panels out there but they are really expensive although prices are starting to come down slowly. So far I am pleased with my single red/blue panel and my Hoyas have been growing very well under it although they do get some light from a south facing window that is about five feet away. You do need to keep the plants as close to the panel as possible to maximize it's effect. My panel is quite high above my plants but I only wanted it to provide light to the taller plants as they climb their supports. What exactly were the negative comments about LED grow lights? I can always post my experience with these lights after a few months or some time during the winter. If my plants don't bloom or grow well we will know that they are not bright enough. Mike Here is a link that might be useful: LED Wholesalers INC on Ebay

At first I tried many methods including the burrito method which all ended up with the black stems. I began my experiment with store bought roses purchased at the local flower shop. I've had awesome success with other hardwood cuttings with Dip n' Grow, so I figured it would work with roses. I proceeded to look up methods online, I followed the instructions in the Dip n' Grow insert with all of them resulting in black stems. One thing I did notice was that with one experimental method using water with an air stone bubbling (oxygenating) the water the stems would begin to callous and they began to show new growth at the budding sites, but after a while the stems would turn black and die. At that point I'd tried different pH's, nutrient solutions and growing mediums. After several dozens of roses and a lot of wasted money on roses, I eventually got fed up. So on my last attempt I realized that the blackness on the stems was actually an infection of the stem. So I thought to myself "How can I eliminate the infection factor?". I tried one more totally experimental method using and uninfected portion of the main stem that exhibited new growth from one of the stems that was infected in the lower area and finally, SUCCESS!! Here is my original method that I used to propagate the first plant: You will need the following: 1. Coir (coco peat) 2. Microwave safe bowl 3. Microwave Oven 4 Clear Container with a lid, (many Chinese restaurants use them for soups) 5. Dip n' Grow Rooting hormone 6. Cotton swabs Step 1: Add your Coir to the microwavable bowl add enough water to have the coir in a liquefied state Microwave for 20 minutes to sterilize the Coir and kill any fungal spores or bacteria it may have in it. Step 2: Strain the Coir using a piece of cheesecloth or other fabric that has been washed in chlorine bleach being certain to squeeze as much of the water out as possible. Step 3: Wash the soup container with bleach then thoroughly rinse. Fill soup container half way with your damp coir packing it down. Step 4: Take a cotton swab and dip it into pure Dip n' Grow then dip your swab in water as to slightly dilute the Dip n' Grow in the swab. and use the swab to cover the areas of the cutting where it has been cut, being careful not to put the rooting hormone on any part of the cutting that will be exposed to light. Step 5: Put the Hormone treated area into the coir being sure it is not exposed to light, then cap the container. Step 6 Put your cutting under some form of artificial light, compact fluorescent bulbs work well (at least 25 Watts). In the above steps you've created a sterile environment for your cutting to take root. In about a week or two check for callusing, when you see the callousing then add a small amount(a few drops) of very mild, high phosphorus fertilizer (promotes root growth) around the area where the callousing exists, so it can easily gain access to the fertilizer . Look at the bottom of the container periodically for signs of rooting In another 1-2 weeks you should see roots growing against the bottom of the container. This is the point where you can gradually expose the leaves to the environment because once root formation has begun you no longer have to fear infection Note: if you notice any fungus growing anywhere in the container, it is better to expose the cutting to dry air which will kill the fungus and let the cutting have chance at growth.