1 centimeter = 0.393700787 inches Thank goodness for Google! Campanula, are you getting the barely audible whining coming from sunny Florida? --- i don't know how to grow sweet peas. will they grow in the heat? you mean start them in the pot but then plant them in the ground, right? will they grow on a rose or are they too vigorous? what do you grow them on? i mean, just a little trellis against a wall? (The idiot gardener returns!) I was googling for seeds, and someone said Matucana grows to 1.2192 meters. No, she didn't. She said 4 feet. Do you agree with that size estimate? Is it totally wrong to think about growing one up into a good-sized Tea rose bush? Thanks for the recommendation. I'll try to get some seeds of this variety. The photos are VERY pretty. Sherry Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Thanks michaelg. Hmm. We did not get that low a low though we did have some frost warnings for tender plants on several overnights, I thought. Some of the bare roots were certainly healthier than others, though a couple that I thought had what appeared to be more cane damage than others seem to be doing better now. The tips do have/had a browning, like the last most tip of leaf growth died. I can't say the growth looked wilted though. I thought I was watering sufficiently and our rainfall was pretty good. Maybe it was insect damage. I think I will try and take some pictures and post here later on. I will leave them as is and not trim back any of the leaves. Hopefully they are working on deep roots.

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

Kristen, the reason why "damaging" the end of the cutting allows callusing is you're exposing the cambium layer, the juicy, lighter green layer just beneath the bark. This is the circulatory system of the plant and the tissue that differentiates, either forming more cambium to "knit" a bud to a stock or callus which further differentiates to form roots. Scarifying, or exposing more cambium by scraping off the bark to reveal it; smashing or crushing the ends to expose it or simply slicing through the bark to uncover more of it all have the same effect, though with varying results depending upon a variety of factors. The bottom line is, usually, the more cambium you expose, the greater the callus and number of roots. You might not have had good luck with softer wood cuttings possessing leaves because they transpire too much water, permitting the cutting to dry out. Traditionally, those with foliage work best in more humid conditions where they actually absorb moisture, keeping the cutting hydrated while it calluses and forms roots. Softer wood cuttings with a set or two of leaves are very successful under mist propagation. They continue producing chlorophyll, feeding the plant while absorbing moisture so the cutting continues performing as if it had roots, until it does. Often, this can be accomplished using Mel Hulse's Baggie Method http://paulbardenroses.com/hulse.html It also works rather well under more sophisticated greenhouse conditions. If your climate is humid and mild enough, it may work outdoors without artificial assistance, but I live in a more arid section of Southern California where outdoor propagation isn't successful without assistance. Are leaves necessary for success? If you're using soft wood cuttings during the normal growing season, and you have the right conditions and equipment, they make success easier, faster and more guaranteed. If you can't meet any of those conditions, they'll probably make it easier to fail. If the cuttings you strike with leaves fail with the foliage drying up, your humidity is too low when and where you're doing it. Where I am, they either perform as you've described, or if I put them under plastic, they mold and the cutting fails. That's why I have been so enthusiastic over the wrapping method. When done under the most appropriate temperatures with sufficiently hardened wood, it works like magic. Burying all but the top inch of a cutting has very similar effects and results as the wrapping method. You're keeping the cutting dark, cool and moist, all conditions required to stimulate callusing and rooting. After removing them from the wrapping when they are callused, and often rooted, I plant the cuttings deeply so the majority of the wood remains under soil for that exact reason. Why not? The suggested method of planting a bare root rose is to plant it then mound it with soil, keeping it damp, cool and moist until new foliage appears at the cane tops. At that point, you want to gradually expose more and more cane, permitting it to harden off to the elements rather than just stripping the soil from it and letting it fend for itself. The same is true for cuttings removed from a "close environment" of a baggie or greenhouse. They have to acclimate to the hotter, drier and sunnier conditions just as we do after being inside all winter when we begin spending more time in the hotter, sunnier spring and summer. Once I see growth beginning at the cutting tops, I tilt them out of the pots to check on root activity. If it's filling the bottom of the pot with roots, I'll raise it in the pot, exposing more of the cane by planting it higher, with more soil beneath it. If you can accomplish planting bare roots, uncovering them from the protective soil mounds once grow begins or putting the cuttings out higher just prior to or during a rain, it works excellently! The continual bath of rain helps stabilize them and harden them off very quickly, making your success even more of a sure thing. Kim