The art of Peter Bowden My display of prints is now at the Hewitts on Western Ave. Drop by for a look! They are 11 X 14 printed on Kodak Endura paper for 100 year colorfastness. Signed, framed and on sale for $49.99. Enjoy!

Need a garden speaker for your club or business? Contact: pbowden2@nycap.rr.com

Rooting for spring It is still a little too early to start even the earliest seed for our gardens, but there is something I can do right now that will add to my display in my flowerbeds. The quiet days of winter give us plenty of time to take root cutting from geraniums that I rescued before frost claimed them. I potted them up in fall, and theyve been doing fine on the windowsill. They even seem to have started growing a bit now that the days have started to lengthen. Many folks like to root their cuttings in water, then transplant them into soil. The roots that a plant grows in water are very different than those that form in soil. It’s quicker and more reliable to root directly into soil.

This looks like a nice, healthy shoot. It should make a nice cutting to root.

To root geraniums, simply take small (or large, if you wish) cuttings and strip off some of the lower leaves. Now you need to leave them alone for a half hour or longer.

Heres the cutting stripped of its lower leaves and ready to scab over.

This will allow the juicy cut youve made to scab over. The reason we do this is to minimize the chances that the cuttings will rot. If you stick the cutting into the soil with a fresh juicy cut, dirt will enter and the chance for a rotted stem is much greater.

Heres a look at the fine hairs on the geraniums stem. These hairs will turn into roots when the stem is buried.

Here are the cuttings drying out and scabbing over for an hour or so. Below are the leaves I stripped from them.

Once the cut has dried, dip the stem into some rooting powder. Rooting powder is fine talcum with a rooting stimulant added to hasten the transition of those stem hairs into moisture and nutrient absorbing roots.

Dip the cutting into rooting powder.

Then slip the cutting into sterile potting soil. As you see, Im rooting a group in a single pack. After theyve rooted I can move them to pots or even wait and plant them in the flowerbed in late May. After you have your cuttings all planted, water them in lightly.

Since the house is dry in winter, I need a way to keep some humid air around the cuttings so they dont dry out while rooting. Keeping the soil soggy wet wont help and will actually cause the stem to rot long before it has a chance to form some little roots. I want the soil just lightly moist but the air around the leaves humid. An easy way to do this is to place the container inside a plastic bag. The bag doesnt want to be sealed up since the leaves need to breathe. Misting inside the bag should be all the moisture the cuttings need until they have roots growing.

Bagged up and ready to grow! On the left is a coleus grown from a cutting taken from one of last summers outdoor planters.

Place the cuttings and their little humidity bag in a spot that is warm and bright but without any direct sun. Inside the plastic bag, the temperature would get high enough to kill the cuttings if it were placed in direct sun for too long. In three weeks or so when the cuttings have grown roots, they can be removed from the humidity bag and placed in a sunny window. A very light feeding (1/4 strength) will also stimulate growth. Dont feed too much or too often while the plants are youngsave that for when they are out in the garden in summer. Thanks for the read.

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