As summer draws to an end, now is the perfect time to fill your outdoor space with even more hydrangeas by following along with this simple and cheap gardening hack
If you’re looking to grow hydrangea blooms for next year then now is the perfect time to follow this expert hack.
Hydrangeas have long been popular garden flowers for both their colourful blooms and their relative ease to grow. Now that summer is coming to a close, British garden designer Ish Kamran has revealed a way you can grow hydrangeas simply from taking cuttings – meaning you don’t have to run to the garden store to buy new seeds.
On his TikTok channel, Gardening with Ish, he explained that hydrangeas are one of the “easiest” flowers to take cuttings from, and therefore a great way to practice.
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First, he tells gardeners to find a stem that has no flowers on it. Then, you cut directly below a leaf node.
He explained: “The reason you cut just below a leaf node is because that’s where a load of growth hormone is. So when it’s being planted in the ground, that’s the best place it’s going to root.”
Next, he says that you should remove as much of the foliage from the bottom of the plant as possible, leaving just two leaves on top. Otherwise it can stress the plant out and prevent it from concentrating its energy and nutrients into the new growth.
After you’ve finished stripping the foliage, you should take the two remaining leaves and snip them in half. Ish says: “It doesn’t seem like it’s a practical thing to do, but it actually reduces the amount of stress and water loss when you’re taking a cutting.”
Once you’ve completed these steps, your cutting should be ready to place in some multi-purpose compost and, if desired, a small amount of grit. Simply make a little hole in the centre of your compost and pop the stem in, then bury it in place.
At this stage, Ish says you can add some growth hormone if you want to, but adds that it typically “does fine” on its own.
Now that your cutting is planted, Ish recommends watering it generously to “really get it going”. If you want to retain as much moisture as possible, he also adds that you can place a sandwich bag over the pot for “a couple of weeks or so” to increase the humidity.
However, he warns that, if following this step, you should make sure to leave a gap to allow for a little bit of airflow, otherwise you risk growing fungus.
Finally, after about three or four weeks, your plant should start to root. Although, Ish advises leaving it in a pot until it gets to springtime, when you can transplant it outdoors.