I haven't wrapped azaleas yet because they rooted as easily as the hibiscus, the same way I rooted hibiscus. I have wrapped lilac and it callused. So far, there are still four pieces of lilac pushing new growth, but no visible roots in their pots. They're fresh and appear to be growing. I won't know for a while if it's going to work. Laurus noblis hasn't callused, but it also isn't deteriorating once planted (three weeks). I did the azalea out of curiosity, using various size and thickness cuttings. They took easily. I don't know if they flowered this year or not as I really don't have anywhere suitable to grow them except where they already grow and that's full. They were pieces which grew where I didn't want them to grow, so I tried rooting them instead of just throwing them out. They were cut in October of 2010 and rooted by spring/summer 2011. All I did for the hibiscus and azalea was to fill two gallon cans with Miracle Grow Moisture Control Potting Soil, firming it in very well by hand. I cut the various cuttings and stripped of all but the top leaves. I used Dip'n Grow diluted to between the 10 and 15X levels (probably about 12.5X), just because that "seemed" right, soaking the newly cut cuttings for about six seconds before jamming them into the moistened soil. Once all inserted, I watered a second time and left them in the shade of the house, north side, where they received strong, reflected light and all the rain which fell. It WAS a wet year and spring lasted until June. This year, there hasn't been any rain to speak of and "winter" hasn't happened. It's supposed to be nearly ninety here tomorrow. I gave away pots of hibiscus and azalea last year because they rooted SO easily. They were all varieties I already grow and I didn't need more.

Ken has it exactly right on this issue--any of these methods will promote the growth of additional foliage, but to sustain long term growth, you need root growth. When Ken mentioned BA, what he meant was BAP, which is still being sold. However, as he said, it promotes only the growth of leaves, and does absolutely nothing for roots. The first year it is used, the plants look great--the next year, they look a little pitiful, and it may take 3-5 years for a plant treated with BAP to recover completely. Rossizing also promotes the growth of new foliage, but does nothing for the roots. I have used most of the mechanical methods for propagation, because I do sell some hostas, but now the only method I use is to divide plants into single divisions, put them in the ground, and then wait for them to grow enough to sell. The best way to promote quicker growth and maturation in a hosta is to give it the best growing environment possible. When you plant the hosta, amend the soil in whatever fashion is necessary for your area, making sure that lots of loose organic material is included. If you have really bad soil, or very heavy clay, dig out an area large enough to accomodate the mature root system of the hosta being planted, discard the clay, and fill the hole with a mix of compost, peat, well rotted manure, or any appropriate organic material. For a large hosta, this will involve digging out an area at least the size of what is commonly called a bushel basket, although the "bushel baskets" in this country are actually a bushel and a half. A smaller hosta would require an area the size of a regular bucket. Err on the side of a larger hole rather than a smaller hole. Make sure whatever hosta you are growing is situated in an area where it gets the appropriate amount of sun for that variety. For some hostas, full to mostly shade is great, but you will find that most hostas grow better with more sun, and some prefer full sun. A hosta that is doing very well in full sun will grow in shade, but it will grow more slowly and take longer to reach maturity. Hostas grown in full shade do have larger leaves, if that is a goal. I have really excellent Iowa dirt, but I still add a good quantity of peat moss to loosen the soil slightly, make the ph a bit more acidic, and help with water retention. Roots grow better in a looser soil, and the better the roots are, the better the part above the ground is going to be. I also try to site my hostas so they get at least a couple of hours of sun a day, sometimes more, depending on the variety. Once the soil is prepared and the hosta planted, the key to good performance is watering. Hostas are a water hungry plant, and you will find that if they are kept well watered, they will grow faster and put out more roots. Water deeply to promote deeper root growth, and as often as necessary. Some people use fertilizer, such as MiracleGro on their hostas, and they get good results. I have entirely too many hostas to fertilize that way, but have found that with good soil and frequent, deep watering, I don't feel the need to supplement with chemical fertilizers. I do occasionally topdress an entire bed with composted manure. Many people have tried the Ross method, BAP, and any number of other methods in an attempt to get larger, better hostas in a shorter time frame. Like Berndnyz5, I am not particularly young any more, and can empathize with the desire to see results sooner. With that in mind, I have worked to improve my growing conditions and the care I take of my hostas. The plants mature at a good rate, but more importantly, they look good from a very young age, and when they mature, they are gorgeous.

It's quite easy. Boil water, pour water in a mug or cup, and place seeds in very hot water, and allow seeds to soak overnight. Seeds will germinated close to 100% within a week when sown in potting mix. This method works with almost any pea family member including Cercis, Baptisia, Thermopsis, Indigofera, etc.

Hello again all! Thank you so much for the advice--I went ahead and repotted/propagated the Sans and so far, so good (it's been one week). I took a lot of photos, and uploaded a few of them. By few, I mean, 22 photos!! A picture is worth 1,000 words, as they say. OK, so here goes (I think I finally figured out how to put multiple photos in a single post) 1. The picture above is of my very crowded Sans, in its bent-out-of-shape black plastic pot, before repotting. It was really easy to tip the plant over--heavy & tall leaves, and light soil! 2. I removed the Sans from its pot, and almost immediately half the soil nearly broke off, as you can kind of tell in the picture. Whatever roots were in the bottom half, well, I don't think they were alive (unless they break that easy?) The un-potted Sans held its shape very well though :) 3. I then began removing the plant from the soil, I think by gently breaking up the soil and maybe lightly shaking it a bit. Though there were plenty of roots in the soil, not many of them stayed with the plants..! 4. Here is a closer shot of the roots & rhizome of one of the Sans. I decided I would cut them all apart at this point. 5. Another shot of Sans roots. In this picture you can see some of the roots look dead. I gently tugged at the roots and a lot of them came off, and seemed quite dead. I hope this was OK! I was operating under the assumption that since people make cuttings of their leaves, which start with zero roots, then it would be OK if I accidentally removed a few good roots in the process of removing the dead ones. Hope what I did was OK! 6. Here is a close up of one of the rhizomes. There are a lot of holes in it. Are these holes former root locations? Are they bad? I do not know what they are. 7. This Sans rosette looked like it was coming out of two leaves, instead of the two leaves being part of the rosette. I felt like the top rosette was its own rosette because there were roots coming from it, above the two lower leaves. Because of this, I decided to remove those two leaves and see if they would take :-D 8. A picture of the now-removed Sans leaf, with a few roots growing from it. 9. I now know a lot of people start cuttings without rooting hormone, but I bought some before I read this. I've never used it before, so I decided to try it out of these leaf cuttings. I put down some plastic wrap, put some powder on the plastic, and closed the bottle to protect the rest of the unused rooting powder. 10. I dipped the leaf in the powder, and picked up the plastic to sort of "hug" the leaf. Then after I tapped gently on the leaf so the excess powder would fall off. Hope I did it right! 11. Next, I went about cutting up all the Sans into individual rosettes. I wasn't planning on cutting them all, but once I started, I couldn't stop! I used a very sharp knife for this task--a knife we use rarely, only when we need a very sharp knife. They were very easy to cut btw. I wasn't really sure where on the rhizome to separate them, so hopefully this looks OK? 12. Here are all the Sans rosettes laying on the counter... 13. I mentioned how the roots came off really easily. I also gently tugged at roots to remove what I thought were dead ones. Some roots had resistance and I left those, others had no resistance, and others seemed like they were a little thin string inside a brown wrapper--seemed very dead to me. Anyhow, this is a pile of roots left behind... and those are not all of the roots of course. 14. I bought a bag of perlite, and later, a bag of MG Orchid Mix, when I couldn't find any pine bark fines. This orchid bark mix had a LOT of big chunks, as you can see from the photo. In the photo, you can see I already added some perlite (before I realized that I would have to pick through and remove all these big bark chunks). The pen is included for scale. 15. I had a pretty blue pot laying around empty, so I decided to use it for some of the rosettes. In this photo, you can see the long wick I have put in the pot, coming out of the only hole. I wish this pot had more holes, but at least this single hole is very large. The wick helps keep some of the perlite from falling out (though not all of it...!) 16. Here is the finished product. Five (now separated) rosettes repotted into a new pot, with a fast-draining soil. Though I removed the really big chunks of bark, there are still pieces in there that I think are too big. I hope it doesn't damage the plant...! I put a lot more perlite in there than I was originally planning, since I was worried it would have weird drainage issues if the medium was half big, half small particle size. Anyhow, we'll see! I should also mention that the individual Sans rosettes are rather unstable in their new pot, but they can't be planted any deeper of course. I used some of the large bark pieces on the top to try and prop them up/wedge them into an upright position. They seem to be doing OK one week later, I think watering them helped. Also, the roots were out in the open air for an hour or two before they were repotted--in case that is significant. Also, I waited two days to water them, to hopefully give time for their wounds to heal before adding moisture. I think they are more stable in their post post-watering. They are now back by a western window, where they get some evening direct sun, just like before the repot. I have a few more pictures to post (of potting a cutting in a 1 QT yogurt container), but instead of adding them here, I'll just link to the imageshack album where they are located: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/838/18sansqtwickinside.jpg. Thank you again everyone! Feel free to critique my work, suggestions for next time, and what you think about there being very few roots left on each new cutting... I hope to continually improve on this front! - Siobhan p.s. I realize I posted a lot of photos, and for most of you, you already know what rooting powder looks like, rhizomes, and so forth, so it probably seems very gratuitous. I posted a lot of pictures because when I was about to do this, I wanted to find a page of someone who had done this, and had LOTS of pictures... but I never found that. So, I hope you can tolerate the picture-heavy post, knowing that it may help some other new Sans owner out there... thanks! :-) This post was edited by wndy on Fri, Mar 22, 13 at 1:53