Transplanted Rhody Cuttings and Seedlings

Seedlings from a plant in the yard after two months.

So I previously stated that I didn't think I had time for growing rhodies from seed and hybridizing. Well, I was wrong. I threw some seeds into my empty moss container last January after the ARS Eugene Chapter meeting. They were the first to sprout and its been very fun watching them grow. I may give hybridizing a try after all.

The cuttings didn't fare as well as I'd hoped.

My cuttings from last fall, on the other hand, have been one casualty after another. I did have some small success. One of the R. adenopodum rooted, one of the 'Jingle Bells' may have rooted and all six of 'Yamoto' azaleas rooted! Since 'Yamoto' also roots out in the yard as it spreads, this wasn't a huge success. About half of the cuttings I took at least calloused and a couple looked like they had tried to grow a root. I think I will look into a different rooting hormone for this year and try taking cuttings of the more woody plants (like 'Avalanche') earlier in the year before they get too big.

'Blaney's Blue' and 'Yamoto', guess which took?

 I transplanted the cuttings into a 75% bark mulch and 25% potting soil mix and put them into 4" pots.

Six 'Yamoto' survived and put on new growth.

I think 'Jingle Bells' may have a few roots, but I don't have much hope for it.

R. adenopodum has lots of long stringy roots. I hope it continues to grow since its parent plant took a bad hit this winter in the snow storms.

I made a soil mix similar to the cutting mix for transplanting the seedlings (bark mulch, a bit of sand and potting mix).

The seedlings are easy to pull out of the moss starting mix.

I put the seedlings into two 6-cell packs and groups of 4 in 3 4" pots.

I fertilized everything with Tappin' Roots. They were handing out free samples of it at Greer's when I was there last week. It is incredibly stinky, but doesn't linger, thankfully. I used 1/2 tsp for 1 C warm water and sprayed everything in the box. The box is back up in the bathroom under lights 24/7.

The survivors! I hope they grow on and up.