How to Clone Shrubs

It is easy to fall in love with a certain variety of azalea or hydrangea and natural to want more of them. Although shrubs are not difficult to clone, depending upon variety, it could be a long time before it is as large as the mother shrub. The best way to clone the shrub is with softwood cuttings taken in June or July.

• 1

  Take a 6-inch cutting from the current year's growth. Find shoots growing from a main branch that snap when you bend them. Take cuttings with at least two sets of leaves and make the cut 1 inch below the bottom set of leaves.

• 2

  Wrap the cutting in a moist paper towel and keep it out of direct sun until you are ready to plant it.

• 3

  Combine equal parts of sand and perlite and a handful of peat moss. Pour the mixture into a planting pot and pour water over it, stirring to ensure that it becomes evenly moist. Allow the soil medium to drain completely. Poke a planting hole in the middle of the planting medium.

• 4

  Remove all leaves from the cutting, with the exception of the top set.

• 5

  Moisten the cut end of the cutting and dip it into the rooting hormone. Ensure that the nodes, where the leaves were removed, are covered with the powder. Immediately stick it into the prepared planting hole, ensuring that the powder-covered nodes are buried, and pack the planting medium around it.

• 6

  Cut large leaves, such as hydrangea, in half with scissors.

• 7

  Spray the cutting with water from a misting bottle.

• 8

  Place four craft sticks or twigs, equally spaced, into the planting medium at the edge of the pot. Place the pot in a plastic bag and secure it. The sticks or twigs should hold the plastic away from the cutting.

• 9

  Check the bottom of the pot for small roots in four weeks. If there are none, check it weekly until you see them. Once the cutting has rooted, open the plastic bag but allow the pot to remain inside it for two days, then remove it from the bag completely.

• 10

  Transplant the cutting into an 80-20 mixture of potting soil and perlite. Water with a fish emulsion solution, diluted to half the strength recommended on the label.

• 11

  Place the pot in a shady area in the garden and keep the soil moist. Bring the pot inside to overwinter. The shrub can be transplanted permanently into the garden in the spring, after all danger of frost has passed.