Varieties of loropetalum include one with striking burgundy and green foliage with hot pink flowers and another with deep green foliage and creamy white flowers. No matter which you choose, loropetalum shrubs command attention in the home landscape. Like most deciduous shrubs, loropetalum propagates easily from softwood cuttings. Take yours in July.
- Varieties of loropetalum include one with striking burgundy and green foliage with hot pink flowers and another with deep green foliage and creamy white flowers.
- Like most deciduous shrubs, loropetalum propagates easily from softwood cuttings.
Fill a nursery pot with equal parts of peat moss and perlite. Water the planting medium, stirring, until it is uniformly moist. Allow it to drain completely.
Choose a branch or shoot from the current year's loropetalum growth. To make sure that it is a softwood cutting, bend it. If it's softwood, it will snap.
Remove all the leaves from the cutting, with the exception of two at the tip.
Dip the cut end of the loropetalum branch into water and then into the rooting hormone. Immediately stick it into the planting medium and pack the soil around the base.
Mist the cutting with water from a spray bottle and place it in a bright area, but not directly in the sun. Keep the soil moist, but not soggy. If the soil is too wet, the cutting will rot. Mist it daily.
- Choose a branch or shoot from the current year's loropetalum growth.
- If the soil is too wet, the cutting will rot.
Give the loropetalum cutting a gentle tug when it has been in the pot for six weeks. If it meets with resistance, the cutting has rooted. Keep it indoors over the winter and plant it in the garden in the following spring.