Boxwood can be found in almost every garden - sometimes as an imaginatively trimmed solitaire, but much more often as a border or hedge. However, since you need between six to eight plants per meter for a box hedge, such an undertaking quickly becomes expensive - and all the more so the larger the plants are. However, if you have a healthy mother plant, the need can be covered by self-propagation. It doesn't get any cheaper!
Propagation from cuttings is easy and promising
Propagate boxwood by division
Some types of boxwood, such as the popular 'Suffruticosa' edging box, can be easily propagated by division. Naturally, this only works with older and therefore larger specimens that are ten or more years old and have a correspondingly grown rootstock. The best time for dividing the rootstock is late summer (September) or spring, if possible before budding. And this is how you do it:
- Cut out the root ball all around with a spade.
- The radius should match the height of the plant.
- Lift the box out of the planting hole using a digging fork.
- Lay it on a firm surface.
- Now divide the rootstock into two or more pieces.
- Use a clean spade, saw or sharp knife for this.
- Disinfect tools before use.
Each part of the plant should have about two to three shoots. It is best to first plant the individual segments in a pot with calcareous plant substrate and only place the young plant in its new location when a strong root system has already developed. You can also place them directly outdoors in a semi-shady to shady place, but then the failure rate is higher.
Vegetative propagation via cuttings
Propagation by offshoots or cuttings, which you can do in the months between June and August, is also very uncomplicated.
Propagation by head cuttings
The so-called head cuttings are the shoot tips of the boxwood, which you cut off to a length of between 15 and 20 centimeters for the purpose of propagation. Then pluck off the leaves in the lower third of the cuttings and put the cut end in a rooting powder. Then plant the small offshoots in individual plant pots, water them thoroughly and keep the humidity high, for example with a plastic cover. However, if you want to take care of the boxwood offspring in this way, you need patience: it takes about 18 to 24 months for the small cuttings to grow into young boxwood plants.
Propagation by cracklings
Propagation using cracklings works much faster:
- For a large mother plant, cut off a well-branched shoot.
- Tear off the side shoots from the main shoot with a slight tug.
- Remove all foliage from the lower third.
- Dip the cut ends in a rooting powder.
- Plant the cracklings directly in an outdoor propagation bed.
- Prepare the bed well and loosen the soil.
- Always keep the cracklings slightly moist.
- Cover the bed with fir or spruce branches in winter.
In the following spring, the Rissling should develop the first tender shoots.
tips
The cultivation substrate should be sterilized before planting. To do this, fill the substrate on a baking tray, spray it with a little water and heat it in the oven at 150 °C for 30 minutes.