Today a neighbor and I planted azaleas that we grew from cuttings of her plants. Fall of 2012, I took cuttings of her red ruffled azaleas and put them in the mini hot house that we call 'the cathedral'. This spring they bloomed! Today we planted them between her larger plants, hope they continue to grow! Now it is time to collect some more cuttings and make more azaleas.
This is one of the baby red ruffled azaleas.
I first tried growing azaleas from cuttings about 4 years ago. The lilac colored plants with large blooms are a variety called Corsage. I couldn't find more plants of that variety and tried making cuttings from my plants using a root growing powder. It worked so well that I ended up with 15 plants and planted some and gave several to my sister. Since then I have had similar success. In the front yard I have some that are now 2 and 3 years old.
This plant is two years old.
All of this began many years ago when I put a cutting in a clay pot and 'forgot about it'. It was on the north side of the house. The next spring I noticed that the cutting was growing. I planted it beside the deck on the east side of the house. That plant must be 13 years old by now.
My husband built the 'cathedral' using glass from old wooden windows that someone was throwing out. He salvaged the glass and built new frames for the glass. The front of the rooting box has the glass windows, the back has a cover of plastic.
Inside the rooting box I put a thick layer of soil conditioner, about 6 inches thick. This is a great rooting medium. Thanks to David O'Ferrell from Guilford Garden Center for that suggestion!
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