I just thought I would post this here and follow its progress because I've never started a plant from anything quite like this: Today I picked up the big stick below at the UC-Berkeley Botanical Garden:

The big stick is a cutting of Dahlia imperialis, the tree Dahlia that sells for a lot more than it should on Ebay (for small plants). I gather a cutting like this is actually the fastest way to start a blooming size plant.

The Dahlia imperialis cutting doesn't seem like a green, living thing, but literally like a dead brown stick. It came with instructions:

{{gwi:31441}}

I figured it would be fun to pot it up and follow its progress. The Dicentra (the yellow, vining "bleeding heart") is there because I'm going to put it into the pot and let it climb. I suspect it might grow faster, at first, and I believe it has buds. That plant is from Annie's Annuals.

I'll follow up once I buy a big enough pot. I did get two "extra" cuttings and posted those for trade on the tropical and general exchange sections. The one pictured here is the heaviest cutting, but not the longest.

The Dahlia cuttings were only $4 each, the Dicentra was I believe $4.50 (their mailorder prices are higher).

Here's some info and pictures on both plants:

Info on Dahlia imperialis:

http://www.anniesannuals.com/signs/d - g/dahlia_imperials_BTD.htm

http://www.smgrowers.com/products/plants/plantdisplay.asp?plant_id=493

Info on Dicentra scandens:

http://www.paghat.com/dicentrascandens.html

http://www.anniesannuals.com/plt_lst/lists/general/lst.gen.asp?prodid=347

Here is a link that might be useful: A blog post I just found on Dahlia imperialis