Well I am out of space in my little garden. Hence the pot.

I'd do both....prune AND repot in a much larger container if nowhere to plant in the ground.

Pruned. Hope that it won't kill them. I have already pruned a potted hibiscus to death.

Trying to root a few cuttings. Got nothing to lose.

Do I poke holes in the plastic bag? I have made it 100% airtight.

UV 13 or 14. Forecast temps 30C. Higher in the western suburbs. Any sun hitting those plastic bags will send the temps sky high.

Sorry not much help as I've never tried to propagate anything. Holes are essential, maybe a spot with very early morning sun and the bright light for the rest of the day.

Nice looking plant! It won't flower unless it gets cold at night for a few weeks. Generally under 60*f.

Cuts aren't bad. This is not a typical tropical or subtropical plant (monocot), it's a woody shrub and needs to be treated like a woody plant (dicot) (tree) when pruned. Look up Alex Shigo or Ed Gilman pruning cuts as a great references. There is still time to correct them.

Poke some holes in those bags and make sure they always have moisture. Typically they are dipped in rooting hormone and placed directly into soil/planting medium.

Let's not get too carried away with descriptors!! Not all tropical or subtropical plants are monocots.........

Exactly. That's a weird statement about monocots. Also, unlike on trees, pruning cuts on shrubs really don't need to be particularly placed or angled. The branch structure isn't going to last decades. It'll very likely be cut again relatively frequently. There's nothing much to 'correct' in the pictures that can't be tidied up if and when you see a reason. Lastly, I don't consider it necessary to make holes in the bag. Blow it up just before placing it over the pot and secure quickly with an elastic band. The bag should be semi inflated do it doesn't touch any leaves. That's a way to get rot. Alternatively hold the bag off the foliage with a wire arch.

The monocot VS dicot is directed toward pruning specifically. You can't prune them each the same. I'm a big believer in doing things right. Just because you may prune your crappy cuts off before they rot down into the stem next season, doesn't mean it's a good practice. Why stress the plant self correcting poor pruning when you could use proper cuts and not have to worry??

Doesn't matter if it's a tropical or not, it needs to be pruned correctly, with proper cuts. The only difference is, tropicals and subtropicals, in their native land grow with far more vigor, year round. The Arborists/Botanists lack of skill isn't readily shown as it would be pruning a woody tree/shrub/vine where things go dormant for half the year. Trust me, these crap cuts catch up with the plant eventually and will cause issues.

Where's the Lorax when we need him?!

@arthurm 40°C or 104 here. Worst time to take cuttings. But it is what it is. Keeping them in shade and fingers crossed.

@TreeGeek Relatively rare ones actually. Osmanthus aurantiacus and osmanthus orange supreme. Though they never flowered but I still don't want to lose them.

@floral_uk Will add more support to make sure sides are not touching. Or maybe will snip leaves in half.

With that high temperatures you will be better off with having couple of holes in the plastic bags. The humidity will reach 100% inside the bag which is not ideal for cuttings to root. The air temp inside the bag will reach even higher during day time even in shade.

If you see condensation inside the bag, especially in the morning, I would make some holes. Clipping the corners of the bag will be sufficient. In general, I would say humidity of 70-80% is ideal for rooting most tropicals. 100% humidity encourages fungal growth more than the cutting. If it is hard to root then the fungus spores have even a greater advantage.

The trick to propagation from cutting is to keep the soil warm (you do not have a problem with that) and at the same time manage to not let the top dry out. It is often better to have air temp slightly lower than soil temperature when rooting. The lower the air temp, the less leaves need water and less stress on the cutting. Not easy to achieve in general. Once rooted, the opposite is generally beneficial - lower soil temp than air temp especially during day time when the leaves are active.

Yup made the holes. Should I put them dense shade or dappled shade. Have got luxury of having both.

Since I do not have any specific experience with osmanthus, I would divide between the two, if you have that luxury. My preference will lean towards dappled shade, in our climate. In yours, I would go towards full shade first. I regularly root many tropicals under the shade of a trident maple in summer. Without any cover. The easy ones obviously root quickly. But some of the harder ones root too. But then our summer temperatures rarely go over 95F.

Guessing, that you are in the west somewhere and your cold hardiness zone might be 10a. The US cold hardiness zones are better than Sub-tropical but they only measure the coldest temperature likely to be encountered during winter.

My holes in the bag statement was probably ill advised for a hot climate. I hadn't thought that through. Where I am and in my garden/greenhouse they're not necessary. Our summers don't go much over 85 at the very hottest. And that's rare.

Eta ... introducing the terms monocot and dicot into the discussion is confusing. It's irrelevant to pruning this big gangly shrub which nobody could possibly confuse with a monocot. As is attempting to apply the pruning techniques suitable for building a permanent framework on a tree to a shrub. And it is also irrelevant whether it is tropical or not, deciduous or not. Pruning this plant like a tree is not 'doing it right'. The OPs cuts could be a little closer to the node but they're absolutely fine and will cause no problems. There's no need to 'correct' them.

I just re-read the comments above since some seem to have appeared long after they were actually posted. Agreed that monocot vs dicot discussion is out of sync with the topic here. Pruning means a wide range of things depending on size and age of the plant. In case of bonsai, shape and aesthetics play a big role too. The particular response of the plant is important too when pruning.

I looked up info on Osmanthus and it is described as "large evergreen shrub or a small tree". So it can be grown as both styles. Like many other shrub like plants Osmanthus seems to readily produce multiple trunks - so we can expect it to produce more trunks as a pruning response. If the target is to keep it looking like a tree those basal sprouts will have to be pruned soon after they show up. Key is to be vigilant and understand the plant response.

Monocots, such as palms and grasses, do not go through CODIT when pruned, they have no need to. Their vascular systems are throughout and not limited to an extremely tiny portion of their plant bodies.

OP is not using this as a bonsai specimin, that correlation is as accurate as saying I want my Nigiri well done.....

These are woody shrubs/trees and need to be treated as such.

Most everything we home gardeners and to a certain extent greenhouse workers, deal with are not of the woody tree/shrub/vine category. The ill placed pruning cuts I see in every greenhouse I have entered on trees(not palms or other Monocots)/shrubs/vines is terrifying, at best.

Believe it or not I do understand CODIT and difference between monocots and dicots very well. And as far as I know floral_uk and gardengal also understand that very well too. The point is that it is not relevant to this discussion.

"OP is not using this as a bonsai specimin, that correlation is as accurate as saying I want my Nigiri well done.....". I do not know what correlation you are talking about. I think I was pretty clear pruning has a purpose and for that you need to know all the possible plant responses.

It does not need to be a bonsai specimen to be aware of plant response to pruning. In bonsai we use that knowledge to achieve a desired shape of the plant. Plants that tend to be shrub like respond differently - pruning the top often encourages basal shoots to grow and you may see top die back through several nodes. Plants that are tree like are apically dominant tend to grow side shoots in nodes close to the pruning cut. Extent of die back from pruning cuts depends on the plant type and several other factors. And of course, there are plants that respond in both ways. CODIT is just one piece of the puzzle how the plant will respond.

So as I understand you find greenhouses have bad pruning practices. It would be nicer if you could offer what would be better or correct way. Do you see anything wrong with how the OP pruned his/hers plant? Would you have done differently?

Glad we are on same page and agree that making junk internodal cuts on Dicots is not good for the plant. Might encourage sucker growth, give a look that we humans appreciate, etc, but it's not good for the plant, especially if we want the plant in our lives for generations to come, with limited issues.

Yes, I do have issues with the pruning techniques implored, and celebrated here in this thread.

At minimum I would go back and make angled cuts at the nodes or branch junctions, and get rid of the internodal cuts that will not CODIT and will rot back. This is a woody TREE, being container grown in a high growth climate, similar to what it grows in in its native lands. It is being grown outdoors, and is not stressed due to cuts. It doesn't need further stress by not having the biological response written into its DNA not work at max capacity.

I do not comment on cuts made for tropicals and 99% of houseplants. When I can help educate folks on how to care for woody species, I am going to. Yes, most greenhouses do not properly care for their large woody species. Flush cuts, roting stubs, etc are prevalent.

Just because "you can" doesn't mean you should. The statement "this is the way we've always done it" is the single most dangerous statement in the world.

This is just a personal observation, but I think far too much emphasis is being placed on "proper" pruning techniques with respect to this specific plant. This is not a tree but a multi-stemmed evergreen shrub. And IME of more than 45 years, there is not much one can do to a shrub - evergreen or deciduous - by "malpruning"!! Most can be sheared quite heavily without concern for flush cuts, rotting stubs or CODIT - they just do not respond in the same way as most actual tree species do. That's why it is these type of plants - broadleaf evergreens - that are typically used as hedging material. Electric pruning shears, hedge trimmers or manual clippers (not shears or secatures) can all be used with virtual abandon without permanent harm coming to the shrub!! There was even a field trial experiment done using hybrid tea roses comparing deliberate pruning cuts versus using an electric hedge trimmer. By the middle of the growing season, the plants undergoing both methods looked pretty much identical and flowered equally as well. Many of these types of plants (BLE's) can be cut back virtually to ground level and will regenerate easily and well!!

And I see nothing wrong with the way the OP has pruned this shrub. Won't comment on the cuttings as that is not my area of expertise but the cut back original osmanthus looks perfectly fine.

Overkill for this particular plant? I agree, but it needed to be said for education, not for tearing apart the OP. I am in no way trying to badger the OP!!!

45 years!? To me that reads as: "this is the way I've always done it!"

Come out into the commercial Arboriculture world for a season and see some of the effects "malpruning" has. Its funny, right? People don't understand the effects their actions have so they poke fun at it and blow it off. From Azaleas to Privets, all the way up to Arborvitae and Hemlocks (you used hedges as an example), i'll show you just how wrong your theories are and just how destructive it is.

I disagree and it drives me bonkers when I work on estates, historically significant properties, or other high end properties with lineage plantings that have been sheared for years. They typically say, the shrub is brown on the bottom, or they want it pruned back as it is too big, or the woody material is too thick to prune back with shears. Very few people want to pay triple the price for hand pruning by Arborists or Certified Landscape professionals. They would rather have their shrubs (and sometimes trees!) sheared by "mow and blow" teams as it is faster and much cheaper. Fast forward a few seasons and they want their estate and its plants looking like they once did and we have to break the news that it takes 3-5 years to corrects this crap and it makes them then see the true costs of their "malpruning" and being cheap.

Guess what? All that is let is an eggshell of growth. Literally no growth except the very outside 6", maybe one or two leaf sets deep. You prune those off, to get the planting back down to a manageable size for the area its in, and there is no foliage left, the plant dies! What's more is these plants have not been deadwooded in years and years, and have not been structurally pruned in that same amount of time, if ever.

For every excuse you may be accustomed to using with justifying improper pruning cuts, I can tell you from first world experience, there is no excuse. Take pride in what you do. Make proper cuts and throw your damn pruning shears where they belong....in the trash. Or stick to herbaceous growing plants, like palms. :)

And, before anyone goes nuclear and brings up Bonsai....we aren't talking about Bonsai!

Lol. I'm not going to say how my crepe myrtle is pruned, suffice to say. It was a mature plant when my wife and I moved into the house 46 years ago, so I just followed the previous owner's routine. Love it. It actually colours up before the leaves drop in Autumn while most other deciduous plants have the leaves turn brown/grey and drop.

As for Palms. Yuk!

Crepe Myrtle do well with rejuvenation pruning techniques, much like lilac.

"45 years!? To me that reads as: "this is the way I've always done it!"

You can read it any way you like........but it comes with a degree in horticulture behind it. And I was also taught pruning by a widely considered expert on the subject. Google Cass Turnbull, take the time to read some her publications and and you might actually learn something!

Love your fighting spirit and unwillingness to learn about woody plants. :)

Hort degrees are good, they dont speak much about woody plants in any of their classes though. Its similar to getting your MD as a physician...did you know they don't teach about nutrition in all those years? How can you help a diabetes patient (for instance, similar to your shrub analogy) if you don't know about nutrition?! Makes sense why so many prescriptions are written for medication, and not lifestyles changes doesn't it? They are blissfully unaware.

Most greenhouse workers, and vegetable farmers have a degree in Hort. Go look how they prune trees/shrubs/vines and you'll be horrified, much as I am everytime I step foot on a farm or greenhouse. Sure there's exceptions, I am expecting to be wowed at Logee's next week for instance.

Just Started: Keep us updated on your progress especially the cuttings. Did you finally repot or up-pot the plant?

The plant has been pruned. Not up-potted as I have to get stuff together to make more 511 mix. And in place repot is not possible given how densly the roots have developed around the 511 mix. I cannot shake the mix loose and put in fresh one.

Not sure if the plant will branch out under the cuts given the hot weather. But there are enough leaves on it so that it will not starve.

The cutting are still covered in plastic bags and in shade since it is too hot. I am planning to remove the plastic bag since it is already more than a week. But I made a cardinal mistake of not making the cut just under the leaf node. Anyways will see how it rolls.

There's no need to remove the bags after only a week. They can stay on until the cuttings root which can be several weeks depending on the conditions. Patience is one of the most important tools in your propagation kit.

@floral_uk : The plastic bags are all misted up like there is no tommorow. Despite me cutting off the top corners of the plastic bag for ventilation.

Mist is what you want. That's the moist atmosphere helping them root. It's the home made version of 'mist propagation' or dome covered heated propagators. If the leaves are in dry air they have to work too hard to conserve moisture, at the expense of the rooting process. As long as it doesn't get too hot, in which case your leaves will literally cook.

Agree with floral_uk regarding keeping the bag on. It is better that way. You can poke couple of small holes near the bottom of the bag to allow a bit of air flow. As you know hot air rises and it will escape from the top. The bottom holes will make it easier to maintain a tiny bit of air flow.

If your main plant has tons of roots then it is suffering too and a repot will serve it better. Root congestion slows down the plant a lot. Sounds like your plant behaves sort of like Hibiscus that can develop a massive root system in a single season. I routinely chop the bottom 1/4 to 1/3 of the root mass. Then cut a inch of the roots from sides and pot it up. Water it well and let it recover for a week or two in shade.

Here are couple of pictures of hibiscus up-pot. Sliced the bottom to examine the condition.

Sliced the sides, raked and reduce the root mass further before potting up. I use shears to slice the side roots like I am cutting a mat starting from bottom to the top - in sections.

If you are having difficulty taking the plant out of the clay pot let me know and I can help you with that. Clay pot is a bit trickier since the roots attach to the pot walls and makes it difficult to get the plant out of the pot.

@tropicofcancer Osmanthus has proven to be a slow grower for me. Unlike Hibiscus which always has some shoots growing. Hence a bit cagey about root pruning.

Do whatever you feel comfortable with. I am not familiar with Osmanthus so I cannot really judge the situation. Reading about the plant I am fascinated a bit and thinking of getting one in spring. A quick search says they are indeed slow growing.

If there is root congestion then you will be doing a favor to the plant with some root pruning and giving it a bigger pot. If you do see roots circling or matting on sides or bottom then the plant is telling you there is a problem and it is wasting energy to circle even more to find conducive environment for growth.

Giving them a bit of air. Some fungal growth. But in soil. Not on Leaves yet. Leaves look kind of ok for two weeks. Few dropped leaves. Though I left way too many on them to start with. Fingers crossed.

They look good so far and a good chance they will root. Cut those long leaves extending sideways in half. That will prevent them from touching the plastic and catch fungus.

You may want to use a fungicide just to contain it a bit while the cuttings root. I sometimes use sulfur powder. If nothing else try sprinkling some cinnamon powder (if you have). True cinnamon has good anti-fungal/bacterial properties (active ingredient in cinnamon is cinnamaldehyde for this purpose). Although most cinnamon in the market is not really true cinnamon but they all have that property to some extent.

Pruning done right. Ooh yeah.

Tiny green shoots were always there on the stems. After pruning they just took off !!!

Great. I had no doubt that the plant will respond enthusiastically. You can start bumping up your fertilizer strength. Also a good practice is to flush the soil monthly especially if you do not get much rain in your area.

Yup pleased with results. Now need to move these guys in shade as we will be having 95+ temperatures in the coming week. Don't want tender leaves to burn out.

Flushing is a given thing in 511 mix. The water starts flowing almost as soon as I start watering. Added some controlled release fertilizer on the top. I do give plant food via watering but since so much flows out I sometimes doubt if the plant gets any. At least the grass under the pot stand is not complaining. Lol. It gets all the good stuff in the pot run off. Gets knee high in no time.

In related news most of the cuttings now have dropped leaves. Will see how it goes. Small dramas of life.

I would say not to be too hasty to move it to shade for whole day. You will end up with weaker leaves. Shade in late afternoon will be beneficial when it is very hot and keep it well hydrated. It is even more beneficial to shade the pot from the Sun - may be your tall grass around the pot does that for you.

Flushing is a separate task from just watering. The idea is to use lot of plain water several times to 'wash' the mix of accumulated/unused salts. Followed by a dose of fertilizer if you are also using liquid fertilizer. In our area we get a lot of rain at times and so nature takes care of the flushing for us in summer. All I have to do is to remember to fertilize my plants after the rain stops.

Two cuttings seem to be holding up. Rest are I think done for.

should I still keep them covered in plastic bags?

If you see any sign of roots poking from the bottom then you can uncover but still keep in bright shade. Or if you see new buds pushing growth. There may not be enough roots to support all the leaves so a bit of protection would be necessary. You can also give it a slight tug, if there is resistance roots may have formed. But to be safe keep it protected for another week or two and check again.

Alright the bags are on and they are back to shade.

One year has passed. So what happened? None of the cuttings survived.

And this year I might have done something special as the two slow growers are putting on some serious growth.

Here are they resting under crepe myrtle.

And yeah. No flowers on these two. They are now 4 years old.