Daphne cuttings, seed germination, winter grumbling, and much more
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Winter -- the best time for propagating Daphnes!
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For once, extreme winter weather is in the news and it ISN'T in Michigan! All you East Coasters getting buried under massive amounts of snow… welcome to our life. We did that the last two winters. This year we're enjoying moderate snow and reasonably average temperatures. Hopefully if the trend continues, we'll soon be able to enjoy our new ocean front property in mid-Michigan.
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| Global warming won't stop our Daphne propagation, anyways. |
As much as we all love to complain about winter, it is an
important part of Arrowhead's schedule. For one, if we had to be watering and
weeding 12 months a year, we'd probably go insane. A little winter break when
everything is dormant and frozen solid isn't a bad thing.
Winter is also our key time for propagating Daphnes. We cut
them at various times, but one of the best is early January. Cuttings brought
in from the cold and stuck in a warm, bottom-heated cutting frame come out of
their winter dormancy and start growing roots in a hurry.
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| Some of our prized D. calcicola cuttings, growing in a bottom-heated frame |
Well, in a hurry for a Daphne. There is a reason we're about
the only nursery that grows many of these things. They're a pain in the ass pretty
much from the moment you take a cutting until the time you plant them in the
garden. But they're OUR pain in the ass, and once they do get put in the
ground, provided they've got excellent drainage, they are so ridiculously
beautiful and non fussy that it is impossible not to love them.
Daphnes, as hopefully you know, transplant best when they
are tiny, so every year we're sticking big batches of all of our favorites so
that come spring we'll have the best, most vigorous plants to ship out to our
customers. After those cuttings are a couple years old, they may look bigger
and fuller, but they simply don't transplant well -- to the chagrin of everyone involved.
Warning: big, cool looking Daphne photos incoming:
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| D. calcicola in bloom |
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| D. calcicola in bloom, close up |
In addition to all our usual offerings, we've been working
on taking cuttings of some of the very rarely available yellow flowered Daphnes,
D. calcicola (seen above) and Daphne gemmata (aka Wikstroemia gemmata). These guys are never
easy to produce, but fingers crossed we'll get enough rooting that we'll be
able to list them this spring!
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| Some of our cuttings of Daphne gemmata, also known as Wikstroemia gemmata |
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| The impressive cream-yellow flowers of D. gemmata |
If any of this
Daphne-talk has piqued your interest, head on over to
our shopping cart here and take a look at some of the new offerings we've been adding over the winter. And of course you can find many of our wonderful selection of
Daphnes on tap at
this link here. Don't forget you have until the end of January to use our winter coupons:
- Either enter the code ‘SNOW’ at checkout and receive 20% off your entire order (excluding our collections, grafted conifers, and bulk wildflowers)
- Or enter the code ‘ICE’ at checkout to get free shipping.
As always, we will hold your orders placed now until spring when the weather has thawed and planting may begin.
