Monday, May 25, 2009

Phlox subulata Experiment

t has rarely occurred to me early enough in the season to take cuttings of my creeping phlox. I have one huge candy stripe phlox plant. It looked kind of dry and crappy for most of last year due to some extreme flowering. It blooms for about 4 weeks straight. Happily it came back just fine this Spring. Since it came back I decided I want a few others of it to spread around so I don't obsess over it quite to much. I carefully cut off six 3 in shoots that were not going to flower. It's important that they aren't flowering shoots. I set up 6 3 oz plastic cups with potting soil and poked some holes. I then carefully cut most of the leaves off the shoots except for the top set. On a few I cut the shoots in half and again cut off all the leaves except for the top ones. I dipped the ends in rooting hormone (my first use of it though I've owned it for some time), and potted them up. After watering I put them in a humid plastic box, and will be keeping them damp and warm, but out of bright light for about a month to see where I go. I count it as good luck that 6 hours later the shoots are still alive. My last attempt had already ended in failure by this point. Update: Within two weeks they all turned yellow and keeled over. Might have been a moisture issue, or they just weren't able to grow roots. not really sure.