I would go for it. What do you have to lose? Plants put on root growth in both spring and fall; the trouble with fall rooting is beating the window before the cold. : (( Most of mine have some good roots within 6 weeks, so be prepared to bring them inside if need be. How do you root yours? I took some more cuttings today, so we'll see! I was just putting them in the ground in spring, but think it may be too late for that. Please report back with your results.

So what did you end up doing? Most of mine rooted and have been repotted. There are a few that are still in their rooting medium, but I'm hopeful! : )

Hi Vaporvac - Wow, that's great! No, I didn't do any. We got busy with too many things and that moved to the bottom of the list. :-). I did cut Hydrangea to bring in to dry and left them in a bit of water as it evaporated. They dried nicely, but it took a couple of weeks and as I walked by the vase one day, I noticed that one stem had rooted in the water. lol. But I ignored it. I didn't need another of that type of Hydrangea. I will try that next year, hopefully, with 'Little Lime' that I would like another of.

As for my roses, I decided I wanted some new ones, so I ordered 3 more that will be delivered in April. Instead of taking cuttings, I decided there is one that should be performing much better than it is and I need to move that into more sun, so that is planned for the spring as well.

We did find the time to really put a lot of preparation into our front bed. We moved just about everything that needs moving for next season, and I finally got around to digging up Lily bulbs that were congested and replanted those. Also ordered 4 new varieties and planted those when they arrived. Bought a second 'Little Lime' Hydrangea, a new hardy Hibiscus and a couple of mildew resistant Phlox and planted those. Ordered spring bulbs and planted those. And I managed to dig in piles of kitchen scraps to break down over the winter before we put down a heavy mulch of chopped leaves. I even managed to pre-dig where the new roses are going, so it will be easier in the spring. [g]. I've never been that prepared for spring and I can't wait to see how it all turns out.

So, tell me, which varieties did you propagate and are you going to grow them in the house all winter? I'll be interested to hear how that works out. Photos too. :-).

That's fantastic about the hydrangea. I also find them very easy to root, but have only tried in the soil. I hope they make it through the winter, especially my oakleaf variety. I killed one transplanting it to a pot. I'm really wanting a limelite myself even if it's huge! I need some large plants for shade and they do well for me since we have so much rain.

Wow! You have been super productive! I was waiting for some cooler weather her, but we went straight from stinking hot to freezing. I still haven't brought all my pot babies into their cold space yet. That's a great idea to pre-dig the holes. I did that once and stuffed them with leaves which composted over the winter. Now the job is to clear out vines for new beds.

What roses did you order? I have quite a few coming, but I need to cut down until I can prep their homes. I find it hard to resist though, as it seems to take a while to grow them up and they establish themselves so much better with a bigger rootball. I just received three and am undecided if I should keep them in my unheated vestibule or keep them completely dormant in my cold cellar. Decisions.

I had success with over 40 cuttings!!! In the two years prior, I managed to root about 5 out of HUNDREDS of cuttings. This year I changed MANY things and success went through the roof. Unfortunately, the rare cuttings only had a 10% success rate as that experiment wasn't as good. : (( Isn't it always the way? My Fall cuttings were abject failures last year, but so far so good this year. I hope to experiment with dormant cuttings again, changing some parameters until I get it right. I don't give up easily! : ) I'm open to exchanging cuttings, etc. btw. I still have some seeds to send to another member. I waited for them to mature and now they are undergoing cold stratification. They probably think I forgot. I'll write what I have in the next entry so I don't accidentally lose this one.

P.S. Are you on HMF? I couldn't find you list in MA.

I rooted over 20 varieties and had great success with Viking Queen, Ballerina, Pink Pet and Aloha with multiple cuttings. I had at least one of La Marne, The Tooth Fairy, NOID possibly Anne Boleyn, NOID possibly Carefree beauty, Teasing Georgia, Cl. Caroline Testout, Cl. Jackie, , New Dawn, Bloomfield Abundance, Jeanne laJoie, Red Cascade, Excellenz von Schubert and an unkown Holly! Hopefully, I'll be able to get more of the rarer ones and have better success with them next year. I was so bummed my Red Fountain, Lilac Rose, Mme. Plantier, Abe Darby and many other beauties didn't make it : (, but at least now I have a technique that works for me! : )

Vaporvac - You seem to really enjoy propagating. I haven’t really found the time to do much of that, but the few times I have, I could see how it could be addictive for me. [g].

The Hydrangea I will try to propagate next spring will be the ‘Little Lime’ which is a dwarf. I bought one last year and I was very impressed with it’s growth this season. It has very sturdy stems that hold the flowers up off the ground and keeps it’s shape and it produces a lot of blooms. I like it better than any other Hydrangea I’ve bought. Well, maybe the Oakleaf I like as well. So I could use a few more of those in another location, so I will try propagating that the easy way, in some water, next spring.

I understand what you mean, the climate has definitely changed. The transition from one season to the next is more problematic. We’ve had an early snow this week. Not that early, but, it was a long warm Fall and so the leaves were late to drop. So this is the second year, that it snowed while there are some trees with leaves still on them. It is hard to fit in the maintenance work you want to wait for cooler weather to do. We had the right kind of season for that this year and I took full advantage of it. I hope you get it next year.

I ordered three roses from Palatine. I was looking for no spray roses, that is all I grow. I don’t have room for a lot. Right now I have four. I ordered ‘Beverly’, ’Savannah’ and ‘Pope Paul III’. And I have an ‘Aloha’ that I’m going to move to a sunnier spot in the spring.

Wow - 40 cuttings?! That is a real lot! How many roses do you have? LoL. I’m glad you stuck with it and worked it out and are being rewarded for your efforts. It’s very satisfying to get the details right and suddenly change the direction of the results. I had that happen when starting seeds. I had a lot of problems the first year, but the next year, I added a fan to the whole set up and voila. Everything worked from that point on.

No I’m not on HMF. I don’t have enough roses to justify that. I do look up roses there when I’m trying to decide on a variety though. A great site!

You have a lot of nice varieties. Some that are known for disease resistance, like ‘Teasing Georgia’, ‘New Dawn’, etc. I will be interested to hear how the cuttings do over the winter. :-)

Prairie Moon, my cuttings are hanging in there so far including those I've rooted already. I added bottom heat so we'll see if that helps. I think it is, although I put bottles on the top to keep them from drying too fast. I've lost a few, but those had teensy roots when I repotted them or they kept getting knocked out of their pot. Oops! I can let you know which I have extras in case you want some next year. Perhaps we could exchange something or not.

So long as I get postage, I'm good! I'm going to try a mist set-up in my basement over my old utility sinks. It seems those I rooted aren't the ones I need duplicates so I might as well try a new method once I get a battery timer. A friend gifted me a mister; I just have to figure out how to set it up. If I get it going it will really help with the rare varieties I have access to sometimes.