When you make the cutting, you should make it first thing in the morning. Avoid cutting sections that have flowers or flower buds on them. Make a cutting that is 4-6 inches long. Strip all but the top two leaves off the cutting, so it can focus on making new roots. You can dip the cutting into a rooting hormone before planting it in a well-draining medium, if you would like. I have also had success rooting cestrum in distilled water before.

Definitions for cuttings:

Softwood cutting: (Forsythia, lilac, viburnum, potentila, and many other woody plants)Taken in the spring, softwood cuttings are made from brand new growth that has just grown this year. Stem wood should be partially matured but not yet woody. Cuttings should be taken early in the morning, to avoid wilt.

Semi-hardwood cutting: (Lavender, Buddleia, Artemesia, spirea, geraniums, coleus, lamium, for example)Taken in the late of summer, with fall approaching semi-hardwood cuttings are made from this year's growth, which has strengthened and matured, being allowed to grow throughout spring and summer.
Cuttings should be 4-6 inches and all but the top leaves on the cutting should be removed. Dip cutting in rooting hormone and place in well-draining medium.

Hardwood cutting: (Willows, other deciduous trees/plants, in dormant state)Taken in the winter, these cuttings are this year's mature shoots. They have been allowed to grow throughout 3 seasons.

Heel cutting:
A heel cutting is a type of cutting that is made when standard stem cuttings are proving difficult to root or are rotting. To make a heel cutting, you choose a stem side shoot, pull it carefully down so that it forms a "heel" or tail of bark from the main (parent) stem. You then neatly trim the heel, remove the bottom third of leaves from the cutting, dip it in rooting hormone, and place in well-draining medium.

I have had success with my cestrum, making spring (softwood) cuttings and late summer (semi-hardwood) cuttings.

Cestrum does propagate easily if you place the cuttings in water or a well draining medium (I have had success with a sand/perlite or sand/peat moss mixture) in a well draining pot. As I said earlier, cestrum readily roots in a cup of water, as well. I use about an inch of distilled water, changing it every 3 days, if the cutting has not sopped it all up. I keep it topped of at an inch until I see a nice root system forming, and then I transplant it into a well-draining pot or in the ground, where I want it to grow. Rooting hormone will facilitate faster root formation, but it can still take time for cuttings to take root. As long as the cutting looks healthy and green, keep on giving it water.

Sammy, you sent me an email with questions about brunfelisa. However, your Gardenweb settings are such that I can't send you an email response. Fix it like this - see photo below.

Carol in Jacksonville

I have a well established night blooming jasmine that has had fragrant blooms consistently for 9 years. All of a sudden the bush is loaded with blooms but they have no fragrance. What do I do?

Hi, Sammy. I have experienced a couple of times propagating my Night Blooming Jasmines through use of semi-hardwood cuttings with 60% success rate, then after about a month only 4 cuttings out of 10 continue to develop leaves & grow to become normal plant cuttings.
My cutting is 6 inches long by 3/8 inch diameter. In the upper portion about 1 inch from the top is a twig junction of w/c the ends are only 1/2 to 1 inch, forming a y-shape cutting. Full leaves are removed in the cutting & allow only 1 or 2 small/new growth leaves in the upper portion. The skin in the lower portion is removed by 3/4 inch & rooting hormones applied. Then 1-1/2 inch of the lower portion is burried under the soil in a pot and then placed under a shaded area, and then to the semi-shaded area when tiny leaves/growths appear.
Wish you luck, Sammy. Happy planting.

This post was edited by simounagta on Sun, Aug 31, 14 at 8:45

Does the cestrum sort of withers back then goes ona growth spurt of sorts?

The cestrum given to me was robust and blooming. Now, well it seems like its dying back..the branches starting from the tips have turned brown and some of the once robust branches have also turned brown. When you cut it, its not green anymore on the inside. So should i cut down the dead branches? will that stimulate further growth? is this part of its life cycle? what should i do?

Not really! its every green and only dies back due to cold weather over watering/under watering. You do not say if it is in a pot or in the ground?
If you are worried they are really easy to strike from cuttings find a none flowering new shoot and place it in a bottle of fresh water it should produce new roots in about 2-3weeks

its in a pot.

it had robust growth before with real stocky branches...but now theyre brittle and brown. I cut a few and the branches were white inside, not green. i scraped the bark as well and it too showed brown color not green.

there is a healthy green branch off shoot from a common base with the brown dead branches.

what happened to it? can it still be salvaged?
im so awful at gardening.

Hi

I know this is an old thread but I am in the same position as Sammyyummy. I bought a Cestrum Nocturnum plant last year, it grew really well from a single 18 inch cutting into a 2 ft bush, and in the summer it flowered and released it's amazing aroma. I live in Northern England, where we have really cold winters so I took the plant in. All the green stems began to turn woody so I pruned them in January. The plant began to grow again and grew 2 green stems with leaves but these then quickly began to turn yellow and dropped off and so did the new growth. Thinking I had used to much fertilizer or something was wrong with the soil I repotted it and into a 12 inch pot, it's now been 2 months and there is still no new growth, the existing branches are woody and brown, if i cut them they are white inside not green. The main trunk still looks like it is green inside but the outside 'skin' looks shrivelled. I have had it in the greenhouse since repotting it, I only water once the soil dries out with no fertilizer. When I repotted it the root system looked really healthy i.e. thick white roots but I did find a slug hiding deep inside(!?!), so now I'm worried the roots have an infection or are being attacked by pests. Does anyone have advice on how to bring it back to life again? Could I have pruned it too severely? what are the ideal conditions for growth? Sorry for the long post

Hi Jimmy, Sorry to hear about your plant. Is your greenhouse heated? Are you able to provide bottom heat for your plant? I'm thinking perhaps it got too cold but if you give us more info we might be able to help.

Over winter I did bring it inside and it was fine. It even had 2 new stems with leaves mid-Feb but these just dropped off along with the stems just drying up and becoming woody. Which is why I'm worried it's got some sort of infection, maybe at the roots because I can't see anything above ground. I already add fish blood & bone, is there anything else I can do to help it kick start growth? Also my greenhouse isn't heated but I might have to invest in a heater. How would I go about heating the base of the pot? I'm kinda kicking myself that I didn't take any cuttings but was afraid I might damage it because it was such a young plant. Thanks for your advice guys

Depends on the size of the pot but you can get heat mats/trays from garden centers which are used to germinate some seeds that need the extra warmth. Then try to keep it evenly moist and maybe a light mist/spray of the stem.