This spring, our lilac trees needed a great deal of attention. The winter snowfall was so heavy that it damaged many of the longer limbs. Rather than simply cut off those limbs, I decided to try propagating the lilacs by air layering. I had never tried this technique, but it seemed worth the risk since I would still cut off the limbs regardless of the success of the venture.
On the damaged limbs, I found some long, straight sections and cut back two thirds of the bark. The point of these cuts is to create sites where new roots might form. The recommendations I found described several different ways to accomplish the task. So, I combined the most common elements to create my procedure.
I gathered leaf litter from the woods and crumbled it to a finer texture. This material was dampened and packed around the cuts in the bark. I made sure that some of the litter was under the cuts to hold the bark away from the limb.
To hold the leaf litter around the limb and maintain the moisture level, I wrapped the area with plastic from used shopping bags and fastened it with strips of duct tape. At this point, the next step was to wait for roots to develop. Most of the information sources I found suggested waiting a month.
Yesterday, I observed the lilacs beginning to flower. Even the limbs that were selected for layering are flowering. So, it is a reasonable assumption that I did not cut away too much bark.
When purchased, our lot across the street came with a profusion of overgrown willows around the southwest corner. Every year, I have coppiced the least productive trees to encourage new growth from the ground. Since the willows function as a hedge, I tried to make aesthetically sound choices so as to retain continuous, if sparse, coverage along the perimeter of the property.
This year saw the removal of the last of the old willow trunks. Now there is nothing much thicker than 2” in diameter, and most of the hedge is 6’ tall or less. It is a far better looking hedge than ever before since most of the trunks and limbs are growing upwards without no major entanglement.
To fill in thin spots in the hedge I decided to propagate some willows, as well. By most accounts, willows are easily propagated from cuttings. I have had limited success in the past, but have used observations from my failures to modify my method.
This year, as I trimmed back the hedge, I cut 2’-long wands from the straightest limbs. I stripped away all but a few of the leaves and submerged the wands in a bucket of water. In just a short time, roots appeared.
I will plant these when the rainy season begins at the end of summer. That should give the cuttings the best chance to root into the soil before winter. In the meantime, I will add leaf litter to the bucket to ensure the cuttings have some nutrition available.
