Very old blue cedar cuttings advice

Horticulture
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I have the opportunity to take cuttings from this beautiful cedrus glauca.

Any advice on taking the cuttings and what to do after I have taken them so I don’t waste this fantastic opportunity will be most welcome.

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Welshwood…Have you tried rooting Juniper cuttings yet (which are probably easiest to get the rooting technique down)? If you have fines left from sifting your soil particles, mix with some crushed Spaghnum, and #2 sand. I have rooted (successfully) many Azalea and Juniper cuttings in this mix. You just have to keep them moist (NOT wet), and in mottled sunlight (or under a grow light), and above about 40F. Once you have tried and found the recipe to success on these, you might try on this sweet Cedrus…
Cheers…
Flex

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Thanks flex, especially for the soil spec, nice use of fines :+1:. I haven’t tried any cuttings yet. I have the opportunity on the old Cedrus this spring so won’t have time to try anything else as practice unfortunately. I arranged for spring as I thought softwood cuttings wood be easier to get to root, is that the case?

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…in that case I would try taking some of last years’ growth to try rooting.
You will also need some Dragon rooting hormone (white powder). When you have the cuttings, scrape off the outer bark to expose the cambium. Wet this with water, then apply the hormone powder . This is done by dipping a dry fine artbrush into the hormone, and “flicking” the brush so the hormone goes onto the wet scraped cambium. Make a small vertical hole in the fines-sphagnum-sand mix, and insert the cutting. Using your fingers, press the soil mix against the cutting so it is firm. If needed, add a chopstick to help stabilize the cutting.
Let us know how this goes. If successful, you should have the cutting rooted in maybe 5-8 weeks. You can tell success if new growth starts to appear in the foliage…

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Thanks again flex. Just coming out of a really cold spell hear in Wales, is now ok to take these cutting or should I wait for temperatures to rise a little. I have a plastic propagation to put them in, I was going to put them on the window sill but that won’t be dappled light?

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…I would wait til temps are above 40F. That way you give it the best chance to push new roots…
Cheers…
Flex

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Great, thanks for your help :grin: