I tried my hand at rooting a cutting after i pruned my daphne bush this spring - and it seems to have rooted. My question is, should I let it overwinter indoors this year, or should I plant it into the ground now?
maggie--I tried planting out hundreds of "newly" rooted cuttings for a year or two, with poor results usually. The problem was with the baby plants heaving out of the ground from frost. Only really vigorous things like lonicera were able to root into the ground enough before winter, to avoid this kind of damage at such an early stage of development. So I would really suggest keeping your baby in a container over this first winter, but I 'd also be worried about keeping it indoors, as it won't have a winter dormant period. Maybe that's not a problem, but sometimes these hardy plants want a break during the darker season, and get weak and collapse on the window sill. Grow lights to keep it growing healthily would be one possibility, otherwise I'd keep it outside by my door to help it go dormant, and bring it inside during cold snaps...just avoiding freezing the soil in the pot. That's my thought anyway.
Agreed. A cool frost free environment for the first winter is best. Let the root mass build before planting next year. Cheers, LPN.
Thanks for the info. Those were my concerns exactly. I think I'll keep it indoors - I have a very cooll mudroom that should be ideal.
