Sowing is less recommended for snowballs. Seeds are rarely available in specialist shops and are difficult to remove from the fruit. Some cultivated forms of the snowball form only sterile flowers. These are then completely sterile.
The snowball can be propagated by cuttings, among other things
Propagation by cuttings
The snowball can be grown quite easily from cuttings or so-called sticks. Take a shoot that is already woody from evergreen species, and a herbaceous one from deciduous varieties. Cut the cuttings at least 10 cm long and remove the lower leaves and any flowers that may be present. You can take the cuttings throughout the summer until around October.
Put the shoots in pots with potting soil or a mixture of equal parts potting soil and gravel. Water the cuttings well and then keep them evenly moist. The ideal growing temperature is between 20 and 30 °C. However, the blazing sun should be avoided at all costs. Propagation is a little easier and more promising if you grow the cuttings in a small greenhouse and/or treat them with a rooting powder before planting.
Propagation by root suckers
Some varieties, like the common snowball, form a relatively large number of root suckers. You can easily cut off these offshoots in the spring and put them back in the ground elsewhere. Water the root pieces well and make sure they don't dry out over the next few weeks. Then it will soon develop into a new snowball bush.
Sometimes small young plants just grow out of the ground around the old shrub. These have then mostly developed from the root suckers. Wait until the seedlings are strong enough, then you can transplant them to another location without any problems.
The best merging tips:
- particularly easy: propagation by root suckers
- Cut cuttings in summer
- For evergreen varieties, take woody shoots as cuttings
- cut herbaceous shoots in deciduous species
- Rooting powder facilitates the cultivation
- Sowing not recommended
tips
The snowball is one of the few ornamental plants where sowing is not recommended. Propagation by cuttings is much more promising.