You should always take multiple cuttings, whatever your plans, in order to cover failures. You could plant them in a clump or singly. They'll look bushier in a clump earlier but in the long run there will be no difference in the shape of the bush. Clumps are sharing space, light and nutrients, so each individual will be reduced in vigour. Singles get it all to themselves. If you plant a single rooted cutting and give it sufficient space and light it will produce a branched shrub, if that is its natural growth habit. You could take the top off the cutting, forcing it to branch earlier, but ultimately an unpruned cutting will achieve the same end. (This applies to single specimen shrubs, not hedges, and only if there is enough space and light.)

How long it will take to produce a shrub you consider 'pretty' depends on the traits of the particular cultivar and the environment but you're looking at a few years to achieve a reasonable size. At first you'll have a low mounding plant. 'Full grown' never really happens as shrubs keep producing new growth. Very old species Loropetalums can become small trees.

just a WAG .. 3 to 5 years to grow them to a small size you might see for sale at a nursery.. add as many years as you want on top of that for larger sizes ... [thats why they cost so much]

the first year.. you will see barely any growth ... as all the work will be below ground in growing the roots.. so that the second year you might start to gain a decent annual growth rate ...

i would not expect a vibrant annual growth rate.. until you have a mature root mass ...

then.. on top of all that ... add your location ... and the ambient weather ... e.g actual growing season length ...

then add how you perfect growing conditions.. as in greenhouse.. humidity manipulation .. temps.. fert... media.. potting etc ...

bottom line ... if a novice can get some to root.. do the happy dance.. and dont compare yourself to professional growers ...

ken

ps: small plants grow better in small pots.. and growing things to size usually involves repeated up potting.. with fresh media ... over and over again ... how you eventually plant them in the ground has nothing to do with that ...

I have this one bush, no idea what it is because it was here when I bought the house. It was always pruned in to a round snowball shape, so I kept that up. Every year I would have a ton of shavings, and on a whim, about 10 years ago I stuck a few of them in the ground to see what would happen.

They all developed roots and show leaves, but they're just long sticks with leaves on them! LOL No bushiness or anything. They've gotten longer, but that's all.

I bought three Ever Red loropetalum a few years ago, and they're at a point now where I'll trim them up a little after they flower. At 6' mature width I could realistically spread the cuttings out and make a pretty border surrounding my property (complementing American holly trees as a backdrop), but I'd hate to just end up with a bunch of leafy sticks in 10 years! LOL

The border I'd like to fill in is about 600' long total, so buying 100 loropetalum at $50-100 /each isn't practical. So I'm thinking about buying three other varieties of loropetalum, spreading them out around the border, and then next year take cuttings and spread them out. If I have a pretty hedge in 5-7 years with alternating varieties I'd be tickled :-D

I could also fill in with Sunshine Ligustrum cuttings, I'm going to trim those this year, too.

I’m very surprised that 10 year old cuttings have not developed into sizeable bushy shrubs. If they have space and light they should bush out. Could you show a photo? As for ‘meat balling’ the original shrubs, that is inhibiting their natural habit and, while it’s a matter of taste, most people who really like shrubs would not clip them to an artificial shape. You can take cuttings without chopping them Into blobs.

I found some pics, and I was wrong about the time period. This will be the 7th year since I planted those cuttings, so not quite 10 years :-)

I tried to take some pics for it, but it blends in with the ground so much that you can't tell what it is. Here's a pic of the original bush, though:

It hasn't started the Spring growth yet, but you can see that the leaves are green. And it eventually has small white flowers.

It was never a beautiful bush, it always looked dead underneath the new green growth.

The previous owners of the house planted it very close to the walkway and pruned it to a round ball. It would get spindly and stick out over the walkway, though, so I didn't have much choice but to continue with the same round pattern. I haven't pruned it since I moved it 3 or 4 years ago, though, and you can see that the shape has grown more into a Johnny Bravo look.

In a few weeks, I'm really tempted to cut out anything that's not green and just see what happens.

Broadly speaking, ground layering is the really the easiest way for persons not equipped with a misting system and greenhouse to propagate most BLEs.

What does BLE mean... I'm guessing related to loropetalum?

If so, I thought they were tough enough that you could just stick a cutting in the ground and keep it watered, and it would likely root?

I have a greenhouse and can work with it, but buying 100 pots and potting soil would likely make it too expensive to happen this year.

Broad leaf evergreen.

Reading thru again I'm confused by your post...wasn't sure if the pic was of the original or one you rooted. It's possible you have a slower growing clone: I only grow 'Zhuzhou Fuschia' because it is considered the hardiest. In any case, I generally think people over-fertilize and I seldom advocate it, but if your plants were growing very slowly it might be what they need.

Now that I think of it, one of mine grew slowly in a spot with poor soil and competition from larger trees...another in a better area grew faster. So maybe they are more sensitive to competition than some other shrubs?

Reading thru again I'm confused by your post...wasn't sure if the pic was of the original or one you rooted.

Sorry, @UpperBayGardener (zone 7), that's my mistake. @floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK had mentioned the second bush that I had moved and asked for a picture, but in my post I wasn't clear about which bush it was.

So the picture above is the unknown bush that I moved. As it's getting warmer I'm seeing new growth from the roots, but the old wood still doesn't have any green on it. Its current location is part sun, but it WAS full of poison ivy until I cleared it out a few years ago. So you're right, the soil might not be as fertile as the soil in its original location. I'm still leaning towards cutting out anything that's not green and starting over, maybe in a new location.

The loropetalum, though, that I started the thread about? They're doing perfectly fine, healthy and growing fine. I have Sunshine Ligustrum in front of them that's growing faster than the loropetalum, which was unexpected, but when I prune them in a few months I hope to solve that one.

your mystery shrub looks like a privet or an abelia, if the former, there are probably better shrubs to mind in your garden...your 'Sunshine Ligustrum' is a privet and they are all very fast growing, so there is no surprise it is outpacing the Loropetalum