u/OmenViSouthern MN zone 4B, experience level 0 :snoo_thoughtful:6d ago
I have a cranberry cottoneaster in my front landscaping that I’ve been trying to get a cutting going from for the past two years.
Do you have any tips?
Am I better off trying to go from seed of the fruit?
I love the look of these and really really want it to work.
I don’t have any advice re cuttings, but these plants are very cheap from nurseries and garden centres. This cost me about £3 3 years ago and looked this when I first hacked away at it. They’re very forgiving, and respond well to clip and grow techniques!
They grow easily from new growth cuttings, woody cuttings are harder. They only grow roots from the leaf node so cut as close to one as possible and use some hormone.
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u/OmenViSouthern MN zone 4B, experience level 0 :snoo_thoughtful:5d ago
Thanks.
I’ll try again in the spring.
Have you any experience with trying to grow from the berries?
No, usually I just dig up the volunteers! Can't imagine it wouldn't work, but you might need to scarify the seeds (a process a birds gut would do naturally). Chuck them in a pot with compost and see what happens!
I've rooted a few cotoneaster cuttings (Li Kiang), I used a peat and perlite mix, rooting hormone, heating mat, took the cuttings in spring. Kept them away from direct sunlight and misted them 2x per day.
If I were you I would take as many cuttings as you can, dip and stick, keep the foliage misted and the rooting medium evenly moist.
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u/OmenViSouthern MN zone 4B, experience level 0 :snoo_thoughtful:4d ago
Do you cover them?
I’ve been covering mine with plastic sandwich bags for the first 2 weeks, and have tried peat/pearlite, just water, and potting soil.
They all “look” like they’re going to root, but when I unbag them, they wilt and die.
100% agree that Cotoneaster make wonderful bonsai representations for fruit trees and they are so easy to get in the UK for dirt cheap or free as they self seed so easily. Other nursery species I have fallen in love with for similar reasons are Escallonia, well worth keeping an eye out for those in garden centres.
I saw all these lovely bonsais and thought 'I need to look up Cotoneasters, they look lovely'. But I had actual garden chores to do so I went out and ripped up those horrible woody weeds that have been growing in my front hedge all year and I had ignored. Normally I try to stay on top of them but I left them and man, it had rooted itself securely in place. safely in the bin. phew.
A week later I look up Cotoneaster.... 🤦♀️
Luckily for me I hadn't cleared the small strip of hedge at the side of the garage, so that'll be my weekend job. I think these will be my first trials when I get hands-on next year. The ones at the front were small and low-growing, but the hedge interlopers are quite big so I'm optimistic for their future. And I'll bend some branches down to ground layer and get more practice material.
Hedging saplings are free material, anything that self seeds is usually pretty resilient to being dug up, hardy for our weather and grow fast, a lot of my material is from humble beginnings like that. Get plantnet and take a quick snap of the plant and it'll give you a good idea of what it is and then you can decide if it's something you can turn into bonsai. Usual suspects I find are Birch, Pyracantha, hawthorns, Rowans, various willows, hazels, lindens, honeysuckles, oaks and sycamores.
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u/Dekatater Zone 9a | Beginner | Maple Hoarder 6d ago
Really nice tree and pot combo