My no-fuss cuttings this time of year are Rosemary and Roses. Some people have good luck taking conifer cuttings in the cold weather but it rarely works for me.

Anything else that you take will need a lot of heat to take off (like the Cupheas you mention on another post). This is why places that root a lot of cuttings use those heated mats under the cell tray to keep the root zone around 70 degrees.

I like to take tropical cuttings in the summer when it is hot and humid. The only problem this year is that all my cuttings are stuck in various places and I haven't had time to consolidate them into one tray (like I have one tray where everything died except two plants, but I haven't had time to dig them out and reuse the tray). I am scrambling to get the hoop house up and running so I can stuff all the tropicals into it. I may be working in the dark by flashlight to pull this off.

How do you do rose cuttings now? Do you keep them inside? Or any cuttings at this time of year?
I did a cutting in August of my 'the Fairy' rose (which is supposed to be easy) and it rooted fine then got eaten by something or other. -Ais.

Lots of things will still root with bottom heat - from $20 mat or others on other forums have adapted things like water bed heaters or electric blanket parts. I'm doing scented geranium, coleus, hypericum, kiwi vine (Thanks to Tammy), and fig right now with success. My leonotis is not doing so well, and I'm afraid it might not be hardy boohoo. The druse book "Making More Plants" describes how to callous and root tree cuttings, and that's generally done in cold weather. Shannon, wanna meet up to compare and swap seed for WS? Email me and I'll copy Druse pages before we meet. Also, good time to root camellias, per Mississippi club site.

Here is a link that might be useful: Camellias

when you use bottom heat, how do you water? the tray is sitting right on the heating mat, correct? and then you water the cells, or whatever plant container you use?

Water while off mat. Or, I just put my whole homemade rooting chamber (originally a kitty litter canister) onto the mat. The container inside has drainage holes, but the canister does not.

I start seeds in Feb on the mat too. Then I just water, drain, and return seed cells to mat. Surprisingly, the mat doesn't seem to dry out the seed cells. I don't know if it's right, but I remove the mat when seeds have sprouted.

I do cuttings all through the year, whenever I have time. For roses I take an 8 inch cutting, remove all but the last clump of leaves, cut those leaves in half, dust the cut end with hormone, stick down into sandy soil in a bright shady area of the yard, and place a glass wide mouth jar over the top of it (acts like a mini greenhouse). They take all season to root but most make it.

I had great success with Thuja cuttings this time of year, ~90% rooted by spring. Haven't tried any other conifers, but will probably tackle Cephalotaxus this year.

Most conifers will root in the winter if taken from the top of the plant. Make your cut just below where the color changes from green to reddish brown (take about 1/2" of the darker color), dust with hormone and stick.

Also, I've had good luck with dwarf euonymous (burning bush) by taking cuttings about 6" long and putting them in a bundle with a rubber band. Completely bury the bundle in sand and check on them next spring.

Deb, I plan to take large cuttings of several of the pink and yellow flowering brugs tomorrow and place them in 5-gallon buckets of water. The buckets containing the stems will go into the crawl space. I left the plants in the ground and the leaves and stem ends froze the past couple of nights, but the rest of the stems seem ok. If the plant roots freeze, there are the cuttings for next spring. (I also have small rooted cuttings of most of these in the greenhouse.)

I'm so cheap I like to keep my Coleus going over the winter, and again this year, I'll overwinter some of my Cat's Whiskers indoors. I'm planning on taking cuttings of my Portulaca to overwinter, too. (It's been snuggling under a styrofoam box the past several nights). I've already taken cuttings of my potato vine and will take lots of cuttings from my pink Brugmansia tomorrow. It's overwintered in the ground for several years, but I like to be sure of having it.

My potted Sanchezia is already indoors, but it doesn't look very happy with the cool temps we have in the house. Maybe I'll have to pay for a heating mat this year...

Thanks all... So it looks like most of these cuttings need to be kept warm while rooting? No, sticking it in soil and let her rip?

I know about using a container to keep the humidity up, but has anyone ever tried a humdifier? I have one of the cool mist ones running near my houseplants and wondered how that would work.

I've got a lilac I want to move and will cut it way back when I do and will try to root some of it. I know that will eliminate blooms, but it needs to be done.

A couple months ago when I was in the NC mtns I took several cuttings of Punctatum (Rhododendron carolinianum) from my sis's yard just before she moved. Looks like some of them might make it. Some are in a pot now in an out building and some in the ground in a sheltered area. Those babies will laugh at any snow/ice we get this winter.

Ralph, I've done the 'bucket of brugs' under the house and most of them turned into a bucket of mush.

Will have to take a walk around the yard and see what else I can do.

Aisgecko, here is someplace to hang out when you have time. A lot of the posts were pulled due to some forum predator.
http://www.desertratrose.com/roseforum/viewtopic.php?t=2246
go to propagating

Carla

I took some Abutilon megapotamicum cuttings they always root easily, also some salvia. I think I want to try the cryptomeria again. Still prowling the yard to see what else I can get into, lol.

Ralph, I went ahead and dug up most of my brugs and gave cuttings away to a friend. I brought one inside the house and the rest I put under the house. The one I left in the ground survived last winter, but it was so late before it finally returned! The one I brought in is under a light and seems to be doing OK for now, even bloomed for a bit. If it starts having problems I'll move it under the house. Meanwhile I figure the longer I can keep it inside will mean less time under the house and a better chance of really taking off in the spring. They were so beautiful this year. Everyone bloomed except the 'peaches and cream.'