hairmetal - do you mind sharing the name of the nursery in Purcellville? BTW - went to Susanna Farms for the first time in donkey's years. OMG they are expensive. But being in MoCo like that, I can't really blame them. Charge what the market will bare. Oddly they had some wierd bargains that almost felt like they'd forgotten to add a 0 to a price. Unfortunately they were too big to fit in my car, like a nice Juniperus rigida pendula, that I think was only $79. It was huge. I really wanted to get something but just couldn't hold my nose tightly enough. I can understand pricing something like a showy Japanese maple high. But they had some little Trochodendrons that were no more than 20" high. Sure they are slow growing when small...but $120? Who's going to buy that? At that size they are about the most anonymous, bland, broad leaved evergreens imaginable. They look like scrounged up bunches of English Ivy. I maybe could have gone up to $65 out of the kindness of my heart, but, $120? Nope. But if they get rich suckers from Potomac to pay those prices, good for them. They do have a nice selection of what I'd call the standard upscale plants...which is getting harder and harder to find. For example also took a quick walk 'round Merrifield's Merrifield location (haha), was disappointed with their selection of similar stuff. If it's showy and marketable, like the Encore Azaleas, they make room for it. Otherwise, overall a more utilitarian, albeit slightly less expensive, selection. And still heavily pushing Leyland Cypresses which is a questionable business practice IMHO. This post was edited by davidrt28 on Wed, Oct 16, 13 at 23:46

Hi ray4805 I tried cuttings for the 1st time about 2 months ago. I took 2 suckers from 2 of my brandywines (I also tried cutting a basil), & IMMEDIATELY got each of their stems wet, used rooting compound, stuck 1 tom in 1/2 manure compost and peat moss, moistened, and the other tom in paper cup w/water to experiment. Put them in sandwich bags, twist tieing them shut. They were kept in a window in hm w/indirect lighting w/home temps (90 sounds extreme for cuttings). I opened the bags 1 - 2 times per day and breathed some fresh air into them. They rooted in both the soil and the water cup. They then came out of the bags and were ready for planting. I did the same w/the basil and it made roots along the stem like the toms. I am in zone 5, but see no difference in what zones we are, as long as the plants are brought inside. Good luck!

cyrus - I had to hill up one of my leggier plants that fell over in the wind. And I was just wondering if those roots that'll start growing out of the stem (like you'd get from a cutting), are the tap root kind, that seem to be more adapted for going deep to find water. Or if they're the kind that, if I understand correctly, typically develop later, and are supposed to be better at soaking up nutrients. Or if they're some other kind of root. I think you're right that later in the season it makes more sense to start from cuttings. So I'm wondering if I can save myself some work when I do that, by skipping the potting up step, and still get the "recommended" root structure. organicislandfarmer and rockguy - I had to pinch off a small seedling, since I accidentally had 2 seeds in one block. I felt bad, and wanted to give it a chance, so I stuck it in it's own block. It was really small, and I didn't think it had a chance. But it started growing again after it got established, and now it's doing really well. dave - Thanks. I'll be putting my cuttings directly in soil blocks. I didn't think I'd be getting a bunch of tap roots, but I wasn't sure I'd be getting those fibrous roots either. I want to skip the potting up step, if I don't need it to get that fibrous structure. I'm only talking about indeterminates. carolyn - My original question had nothing to do with determinates. Organicislandfarmer asked a different question, so we got 2 different discussions going.

A large 5-gallon bucket with water like Mike said works best for me. Let it sit in there for a while, and then slowly swirl it around until soil falls away. You want to keep as many of the fragile roots as possible.