Hi Paula, I have grown out layered rootings in pots for over a year to help establish a heartier root system. I have always overwintered them in the garage because of my fear factor that the roots are too immature to handle the cold for our zone. Keep in mind that my garage is attached and doesn't get below 32 degrees very often during the winter. I fear the roots on your cuttings would not be large or strong enough to survive the more frigid months of winter and suggest that you keep them in their current pot and repot to a larger one in the fall. Grow it out in the larger one through the end of next summer and plant it out next fall. I think you will be happier in the end. Since you have 3 rooted cuttings to play with you could always try three different methods and post your results next year for others to learn from. As for your trellis, it must be very sturdy in order to hold more than one on these clems. Mayleen grows up to 20 feet tall and has a 10 foot spread. Tracy

When I just had one tree, all I had were branches unless I wanted to cut the top off of the one tree I had. Now it's no problem getting a vertical sprout. Had I known then what I know now I would have taken the top off and let new sprouts grow for cuttings. At first I wasn't even sure I could get starts to root. I built a cutting bed facing north with bottom heat and overhead misting on a timer. It worked wonders on all sorts of trees and shrubs. I even used it for germinating seeds. Cunninghamias do have a problem with branchlets that die and hang on for awhile before dropping. They break off easy in a wind or a light touch, and then fall all over around the tree. This can be annoying for the tidy gardener. I just throw them back towards the trunk and let them be and treat it as a groundcover. It helps to surround the tree at some distance to hide the brown mess, or keep the tree fully furnished to the ground enabling a hiding place for the branchlets. In my large garden the problem is mostly lost in the shuffle and I don't let it bother me too much. I don't have any close to the house where I have to pay attention to that much detail, and fortunately I'm not wound up very tight. ;-) Que sera, sera. Mike This post was edited by mikebotann on Wed, Sep 24, 14 at 12:00

Some folks do that and there are several threads in the backposts where it's discussed, if you want to do a search at the bottom of the page: I'm too lazy this AM to do it. LOL But take more that one cutting and be sure they've taken before discarding the plant it came from. And yes, it will take successive cuttings to get the timing right so that you have a seedling at the right age to plant outside. Most folks I know don't clone plants b/c they usually want to plant different ones each year. And yes, under grow lights the plants will survive over the winter. But don't expect fruits if you let them get to that stage. Take cuttings earlier than that. Whether it's cost effective for you to do so depends on how much importance you place on having the same variety, meaning, is it a rare one, or a common one that you could raise from seed at the same time you raise all your other seed grown ones. Ray has some that he really wants to clone b'c he started out with a hybrid, I think it was Purple Haze. Carolyn

I have never pruned off blooms from any of my hydrangeas on their first year to "help them", especially what appear to be several years old and almost mature specimens like yours. But, they are your shrubs and you certainly can do that. I would only try that with cuttings that are very young, which are tiny and have just one stem. Do be aware of a few things... if your shrubs are of a re-bloomer variety, they may decide to produce new flower buds/blooms. You will then have new blooms in 1-2 months. This type of hydrangea will produce Spring 2017 flower buds around July here in Texas so, any pruning done after June might end up cutting off the Spring blooms you might expect to see in April-May. So be careful with any pruning done to the end of the stems after June. Wilting is just something normal they go thru at first and when the weather gets hot. If this variety is not a rebloomer then this variety produces flower buds once, after June, and pruning in July would mean no flowers in all of 2017.