Layering Rhododendrons

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 142, 18 June 1938, Page 14 (Supplement)

Layering Rhododendrons

PINK. PEARL RHODODENDRON, displaying its adaptability for the garden border.

ROOTING cuttings of rhododendrons simply by removing them from the bushes with a knife is a difficult and slow process, almost invariably attended by failure.

Xo matter how carefully they are planted or how suitable the soil may be, their wood is so hard and tough in texture that a cutting removed from the parent bush will rarely be induced to form roots in time to save the life of the cutting.

However, treating these as one does carnations, i.e., by layering, good results can be produced in a comparatively short time, and in the case of good varieties, which are always rather expensive, a stock of young plants may be got by I his method.

Procedure is as follows:—Select as many of the strongest shoots as may be required for rooting purposes from the branches growing nearest to the soil level. If not too high up, they may be bent down towards the ground, taking care not to break them, and kept in place by strong pegs having a hook round the branch and pushing the other end into the ground. Then remove some

of the leaves about Ift from the tips of the shoots selected, where the wood is not too hard, and maJ-e a cut with a sharp knife <>n the under side about 3in long, thus splitting the stem to form a tongue. A cavity should then be formed in the ground, about 4in deep, directly underneath the shoot, and filled with sandy compost, the tongue of the shoot on which roots are formed being pulled open and pushed down into this, and kept, in place by a small peg, placing a little of tlie compost on top also.

Shoots which are too far from the soil level may be rooted by filling fairly deep boxes with the compost or these may be raised still higher by placing an empty box underneath them. Hooting generally takes place in about three months. The young layers should on no account be cut away from the parent bush until it is certain that roots have formed. This may be ascertained bv gently scratching awav some of the soil with the finger until roots are seen. When rooted they may bo cut away from the parent bush and planted in their permanent quarters in lime-free soil.

Layering may be done at almost any time of the year, except when the bushes are in flower.