Hey thanks for the response georgez5il. I had begun to wonder if any one would offer me futher advise. No mice or rabbits are seen on my property, but there are two squirrels which play and scavange under my four mature, acorn producing oak trees. Still yet it is a wonder why my late May recently planted hosta's display so much leaf damage. It certainly looks like what one would expect to see rabbits cause. Thanks for your heads up about that. Maybe, I should cage the buried pots and even bury the sides of the cage well enough to prevent any ground preditors from tunneling under and up into the cage. Since your IL z5 has much colder winters than we do here in zone 6b/7, that gives me more confidence that following your advice should give them a good chance to pull through till next spring. Since they are to be wintered by covering them with straw or leaves, and since our winter cold temps take so long to really entrench in, do you think it a good idea, for me to first put down a little bit of mulch, and then later secure a removable wind and cold temp shielding cover over the cage just prior to our predicted light freeze times, but later to only cover the plants completely with leaves and mulch or straw just prior to our first predicted hard freeze? If I do not do it this way, what can be done to prevent them from rotting if I cover them completely from the start of our night temps, only, dropping into the mid to low 30s?

Vermiculite is winning, but it is still early. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Follow-Up Postings: RE: Fig propagation Posted by: girlfromtheGarden z5 Indy metro (My Page) on Sun, Mar 20, 05 at 0:13 Jon - great pics! how long (on average) were the cuttings' length inserted down into the vermiculite or perlite mix? I tried using longer cuttings this go-round for mine, probably anywhere from 3 1/2 to 5 inches. Wondered what you find roots best size-wise in your trials, or if other factors (like the mix used, or moisture level, or type of cutting) was more significant. (Don't you love the helpfulness of see-through rooting containers? I've recycled pop bottles, fast-food soft drink cups, anything that gives me a "window" to the root zone to double-check progress.) Sherry -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RE: Fig propagation Posted by: pitangadiego San Diego, CA (My Page) on Sun, Mar 20, 05 at 1:42 You can see how long the cuttings are above the rooting medium - many of the Davis cuttings this year were quite generous. I try to "bury" them almost to the bottom of the cup - so about 4ish inches. Interestingly, the vermiculite doesn't clump, so when I remove the rooted cutting from the rooting cup, most of the vermiculite falls away, revealing the roots. Some cuttings root only at the very bottom, some at a node further up, and some all over the cutting. Also, with several cuttings of the same variety, some have shown roots for two weeks or more, and some of the same variety, potted at the same time, still show no roots, even though they have leaves. Go figure. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- refrigeration Posted by: Joxo1990 CA (My Page) on Fri, Mar 25, 05 at 23:05 I was wondering if the refrigeration process was nesacery? I took cutting of my figs and stuck them directly into the ground, and I was hoping they would grow. I am still waiting on that though. So far they have not changed at all. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RE: Fig propagation Posted by: pitangadiego San Diego, CA (My Page) on Sat, Mar 26, 05 at 0:34 Joxo, I do not know, but a fellow that has been doing this for 30-40 years said this was his method, and I was having less that stellar success, so I went with it this year. I have planted some directly into pots, and sometimes they do OK, and other times it has been mostly a loss. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RE: Fig propagation Posted by: Georgia_Jack z7 GA (My Page) on Sun, Jun 19, 05 at 21:02 I've never tried to root anything but dormant cuttings before. However, I had to cut a path between two of my larger fig trees about three weeks ago. They were already leafed out and even had small figs on them. Short on time, but not wanting to waste the cuttings, I cut the limbs into 12-inch lengths, crammed about 25 of them into a large planter, filled it up with dirt from the garden, and placed it in the shade beside a water faucet. I've kept it watered and new leaves are sprouting out everywhere. Even a thumb-sized fig that I left on one looks healthy. Roots? Can't tell right now, but I'm optimistic. I hope to distribute some well-rooted plants to the local garden club that indicated an interest. At my lake place where I have a huge Celeste, I covered a foot or less of some low-hanging limbs with dirt and put a rock on them several weeks ago. When I uncovered them the other day, they looked like millipedes! Thoroughly rooted. I clipped them and gave them to a neighbor. That is definitely the surest way to root a fig. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RE: Fig propagation Posted by: Chills 6b (??) Mi (My Page) on Mon, Jun 20, 05 at 16:21 Re: Davis cuttings. The White Texas Everbearing 2 of three cuttings rooted out nicely as of this morning. I used dip-n-grow on these about 3 weeks ago. I've still got three other kinds that I've had in meduim for 3weeks to 7 weeks. One, maybe two, Celestes looks promising. Maybe one Golden Celeste too. Panachee not doing anything (as far as I've noticed) All are outside at this point, I'm hoping for a little warmth to cause the cuttings to start in earnest. ~Chills

I see you also asked on the plumeria forum so you'll get some answers from the experts, but meanwhile I'll tell you what I do. I don't have room in the house or the green house for potted plumerias so I uproot them, tie a plastic grocery bag around the root ball, and let them lean again the darkest wall in the overwintering/green house. I might give the root ball a little moisture once or twice. They loose all their leaves, but that's okay. They leaf out again within a few weeks. Some folks remove the leaves which is the probably the better way. You don't even have to use the plastic bag. You can bare root them and lay them on their side for the winter. I did that for years. Believe it or not they live, grow and bloom when repotted in the spring.

Woody plants such as cherry are usually propagated from hardwood cuttings -- which tend to be easiest to root -- or semi-hardwood. Softwood cuttings are the most challenging to use, require lots of TLC, and often fail. See this: http://fruitandnuteducation.ucdavis.edu/fruitnutproduction/Stone_Fruit_Propagation/sfcuttings/