Pre-grown farmer's hydrangeas are available as flowering potted plants from spring onwards. They are a popular gift for Mother's Day, communion or confirmation. Many former Mother's Day gifts have become ancient in the garden at home. If you want to propagate your beautifully blooming farmer's hydrangeas (e.g. for a hydrangea hedge), it is best to use the tried and tested vegetative propagation using cuttings or planters. By the way, high-quality nursery products are often refined in order to achieve faster flowering or winter hardiness.
How can you propagate farmer's hydrangeas?
Farmer hydrangeas can be propagated by planters or cuttings. With sinkers, shoots are pressed to the ground and covered with soil until they form roots. Cuttings are created by cutting shoots without flower buds and growing them in sandy soil.
Propagation by reducers
If you only want to propagate a few specimens and are looking for the simplest possible method, you can propagate farmer's hydrangeas using planters. To do this, bend previous year's shoots without flower buds down to the ground, fix them and only cover them with enough soil so that the tips of the shoots remain free. Apart from one or a maximum of two leaves at the top of the shoot, you should also remove all other leaves. In addition, the shoot roots more easily if you cut it diagonally at the point to be rooted and dip it in a rooting powder (€8.00 on Amazon). After about a year, the roots form so that the shoot can be separated from the mother plant and planted as an independent plant.
Propagation of cuttings
You can achieve a higher number of young plants if you propagate them using summer cuttings.
- In June or July, cut cuttings from shoots that have not formed flower buds.
- Remove the lowest leaves.
- Place the shoots in a growing container or bed with sandy soil.
- For higher humidity, simply place preserving jars over the cuttings.
- But place a flat stone or a piece of wood under the edge so that the air can circulate.
- Keep the soil evenly moist.
The following spring you can then place the young plants in the intended location. They develop into strong bushes over the summer and soon bloom. If you prune them as young plants, they usually bloom a little later, but build up better into even and compact bushes.
Tips & Tricks
Make sure that you plant your young farmer's hydrangeas in the right soil. A soil that is fresh, humic, permeable, nutritious and slightly acidic to neutral is ideal. It is important to provide them with enough water, especially in summer, otherwise they will quickly become exhausted.
