in our MI ... last possible frost date is mid to late may ... that should be your target goal ... though you can start hardening them off by about 5/1 in the garage ... pull them in and out... based on over night temps ... dont forget the hardening off period ...

do you have any experience with such ??? .. you might want to start a few early.. just to raise the learning curve ...

i usually started cuttings ... when the winter overed plants started elongating ... if they werent under lights ...

and all i remember long ago.. and far away ... planting some impatiens seeds in january ... lol .. maybe 3 months early ... and once every few weeks having to shave off a few inches.. which i promptly started rooting .. and by mid may.. i must have had 5000 or so plants ... lol ... i ended up using a hundred or so ... and had to throw out the other 4900 plants ... lol ... then the light bulb went on ... numerous times .... dude.. you started to early.. dude.. you didnt need to root all the cuttings .. dude.. fear your success ... lol .. dude ... when winter ends.. and you want to be outside in april .... you arent going to have the time to play with 500 plants indoors ...

many lessons learned ...

ken

Yes, but you didn't answer the question about the cuttings -- another way stated, how many weeks should it take for cuttings to root and put on enough growth to be ready for planting out?

i dont know.. i never tried rooting those plants .. in your house.. with your light set up.. with your ambient humidity ... with the furnace screaming for the last few weeks [i suppose this is where you will tell me you have baseboard heat.. and your windows are dripping or iced over.... lol ] ....

it so darn dry in my house.. the cat wont come to me anymore.. every time she comes up to sniff me and get a little love.. i shock her nose and she runs away ... there are upsides to lack of winter humidity in the house.;. .lol ...

cut one today ... mark the calendar or gizmo .. and find out ...

a little experiment will give you all the info you need .. as to when to start mass production ...

ken

I have a steam humidifier I got at Bed Bath Beyond that works *great*, and best thing is don't need filters so there's not constant upkeep. I forget the brand, but there's not many big steam units so you'll figure out which one. Use a 20% coupon and the price isn't so bad -- it's worth it.

Every species of salvia I have tried roots quickly for me outside (i live in a humid area) regardless of season and without hormone as long as it isn't freezing out. I have no experience with geraniums (cant find one of the fragrant heirloom kinds I like locally) but they are said to be easy. I would imagine if you have enough light + humidity inside it should be similar. My setup for them was just put them in a peat moss seed medium and leave em, checking them every so often to make sure it didn't dry out. Not sure if it's the best way but it worked for me and they never got fungus.

I think you could get away with waiting until a month and a half before last frost for decently rooted plants of these two species but if you have enough light, might be nice to just start now to feel like you're growing something.

Are your mother plants growing as in getting larger, or just staying alive?

I cut back two pots of overwintered geraniums this spring when I moved them outdoors around the last frost date. I stuck the trimmings into other potted plants outdoors. No indoor rooting, no special care. The cuttings grew into small plants and bloomed this summer. This fall I brought in those new plants instead of the parent plants. Geraniums root quickly if you take cuttings when the plant is in active growth. All my spring cuttings took. One of my geraniums lost a big branch in a summer storm. I stuck the broken branch back in the pot and it rooted and grew to fill in the gap in the plant. But most of the cuttings I attempted in autumn died. Right now my geraniums are blooming a bit but they really aren't growing. They're green but just sitting there. I'm not going to try any more cuttings until the plants wake up.

Thanks for the replies!

The mother plants of salvia that I dug out of the ground, cut way back and stuck in pots have put on a fair amount of new growth. The big clay pot of salvia I brought in had them growing in there all summer; these plants are growing too, but not as much as the other. I only trimmed them back enough to fit under the lights; I bet if I give them a good haircut they'll put out a lot of new growth from which I can take cuttings. The geranium is on a sunny windowsill and is growing like gangbusters, she's perfectly happy there, no need to put here under the lights - I should be able to get a lot of good cuttings from here.

I went to a cutting workshop a few years ago and while I remember some of the tips and tricks, wouldn't you know when I went looking for the handouts I can't find them - I must have thrown them away, but I was semi-successful with my prior attempt back then. If I can get the salvia cuttings to root it will save me a lot of money, this particular cultivar is one of my favorite annuals. It is not grown in flats around here and no seeds available, larger singular pots of annuals = $$$.

Update: I took a handful of cuttings from the salvia the other day, it's been a while since I've done cuttings so we'll see. They're in potting mix under a humidity done on the light cart right now, I'll check them for roots in a couple weeks.

How did it go?