Starting Cuttings - Two Ways

I first was introduced to the Vitex tree (also called the chaste tree) on a trip to Dallas, Texas to visit my Aunt Cheryl and cousin Patrick.  Chaste trees lined the streets near their home, and the purple flowers were beautiful.  I immediately asked what the name of this tree was and was told the Chaste Tree.  The name behind it has an interesting history.  The chaste tree makes seeds that are like peppercorns.  

Ages ago, it was said that this tree quelled romantic and amorous urges.  European monks who took vows of poverty sprinkled the seeds on their food and slept on the leaves of the chaste tree to rid themselves of fleshly urges.  I'm not sure of the efficacy of this, but who's to judge?  Modern pharmaceuticals are touted to do this, that, or the other, and have been found wanting, no?

We purchased a chaste tree at the local nursery in town and it has thrived in our yard.  It attracts butterflies and bumblebees every single day.

The blooms are beautiful.  I wish they had a wonderful fragrance, but I don't smell anything.  My sniffer doesn't work too good, so that's not to say it doesn't smell nice.  

I began to think that it would be nice to have a few more of these growing, perhaps in a row, lining the driveway.  We need to go buy some more.  But as I thought about that, it reminded me of an item on my To Do List:  *Learn to start trees from cuttings.  I had done that successfully a couple of times, but not for trees.  We had success with starting a Bleeding Heart vine and Confederate Jasmine.

Now is a good time to try starting a chaste tree from cuttings.  I bought some rooting hormone.  I wanted to experiment two ways, though.  With some cuttings, I would put directly in a cup of water.  With some cuttings, I would put the rooting hormone on and put directly in moistened soil.

So about two months ago, I did just that.  I put three cuttings off of our chaste tree directly in a cup of water.  Two months later, and look what we have!:

Healthy vitex - successful cuttings

The quality of this photo is so poor, but if you look at the bottom of the cutting, you can see long roots.  Success!!

Out of the three cuttings I put in water, two had leaves and roots, and today I transplanted them into pots with soil.  I'll raise them for maybe a year in pots before transplanting in row to line the driveway.  The third cutting was a dud, but like Meatloaf sang, "Two out of three ain't bad."  (Now you'll have that song stuck in your head, won't you?)

No leaves, no roots

Let's go check on the ones that I put rooting hormone on and planted in soil.  As you can see, there are three that are healthy with leaves and certainly a good root system beneath it.  I planted 7 in total with rooting hormone into the soil and 3 of them made it.  Either method seems to be pretty doggone good!

Next thing I'm going to try to grow from cutting is:  BLUEBERRIES from cuttings.  I'm going to try them both ways - with rooting hormone and in water.  Our blueberry bushes are big and productive, but I'd like to have more to make up for the ones we lost last year in the drought.  Tricia makes me a fresh blueberry smoothie every single morning.  If we had more, oh, the things we could do!  Blueberry muffins and pancakes, Blueberry coffeecake, blueberry ice cream, blueberry scones, blueberry jelly!  The list is endless.  

In addition to tasting good, blueberries are good for you.  They're said to reduce blood pressure, prevent heart disease and increase memory.  Probably better health benefits than the chaste tree, too!