How’s Your Gardening Niche?

Last year I wrote a post called What is Your Gardening Niche? It was a little post about how every gardener has their one area either of expertise or interest (most likely both) that he or she just can’t get enough of.  I remember several people decided to write their own posts based on it like Anna (Flowergardengirl) who wrote about her container plantings.

Here’s a short snippet from my post about gardening niches:

Over the course of the years gardeners learn many things through experimenting, reading, and talking to other gardeners. There are many different ideas and concepts to use in your garden and eventually you develop a little niche. Dictionary.com defines an ecological niche as ” the position or function of an organism in a community of plants and animals.” Your gardening niche is that small area of the gardening world that you are more passionately devoted to than any other area of gardening.

My chosen area was…can you guess? Plant Propagation!  Yep no fooling anyone who reads this blog.  I’ve made no secret about it.  It’s one of those areas of gardening that I find challenging, interesting and most importantly fun.  It’s also a great way to extend your gardening budget at home.  If I had gone to our local nursery and purchased all the plants I’ve propagated I probably would have spent more than $250-$300.  It all depends on the variety of plants and size of plants. For exaple the purple leaf plum trees might run $10-$12 dollars each while the salvia, Russian sage, and other perennials could probably be purchased for $6-$8 each. I know I’ve seen Japanese dappled willows (Salix integra) from anywhere between $6 for a small one on up to $20 for a larger 3 gallon pot. It’s definitely a good way to stretch those dollars.

This past year I’ve propagated through division, cuttings, and layering.

I divided several plants like daylilies, heucheras, and even a salvia.  I’ll have to admit that dividing the salvia was an accident.  I was moving one that I made from a cutting earlier in the year and it fell into two pieces. Who am I to complain about more plants?  Heucheras are pretty neat.  You can divide them but you can also make a cutting of a single leaf as long as you retain a small amount of the root crown.  Basically you are dividing that single leaf from the main plant.  If you don’t get a piece of the root crown it won’t be able to produce more leaves later as it grows.  I’m planning on doing a post about them this spring.

I made quite a few cuttings, some successful, some not. My attempt at Cherry laurel (Prunus caroliniana) cuttings failed miserably.  I need to take shorter cuttings this spring (3-4 inch greenwood).

On the more positive side I made 12-13 caryopteris cuttings that rooted.  It’s also called Blue Mist Shrub and sometimes Blue Mist Spirea as well as Bluebeard.  This particular variety is the ‘Longwood Blue’ named after that famed garden in Pennsylvania. I also had success with Russian sage, salvia, artemisia, catmint, willows, butterfly bush, spirea, Schipp laurel or English laurel (which is also a cherry laurel), oak leaf hydrangeas, hydrangeas, a viburnum, Euonymous japonica (not to be confused with the invasive varieties like E. alata and E. fortunei ), sedums, and probably a few other plants I can’t remember.  I tried roses but they didn’t work out. That just means I’ll have to try it differently next time!

One of my latest experiments was layering a penstemon.  This fall I buried a small portion of a couple long stems underneath the mulch and dirt in our patio bed.  I checked them last week and there are several branches with good roots.  All I have to do is separate the rooted branches from the mother plant and them somewhere else in the garden.  In the spring stem tip cuttings of penstemon will work great but you could give  layering a try too.  I layered a viburnum but raised the root to check the roots and they were too small.  When I put the branch back and checked later I found that the root had completely failed.  Sometimes your own curiousity will get you but layering works great on a variety of plants.

I’m sure I left out a few things here and there but that sums up my niche over the past year.  It’s good to have an area or specialty to focus on in the garden.  Whether it be containers, roses, herbs, vegetables, or any number of interesting area many gardeners have niches of their own that they excell at.  If you missed my post last year tell me, what is your gardening niche?  And if you caught my question last year, how is your gardening niche doing? Has it changed or have you done something really interesting with it?

12 thoughts on “How’s Your Gardening Niche?”

  1. I’m not sure I really have a niche. I like so many different types of plants and gardening. I have some in container, I have veggies in a raised bed. I do love anitque roses and vines for my fences, so that would probably be the closest thing I have for a niche/favorite. Great post, though. Really enjoyed it.
    http://KayzKreationz.blogspot.com

  2. I guess for a long time my niche was salt tolerant plants. Living on a brackish creek that floods the backyard I have had to find those plants that can handle occasional wet feet and some salt. Not a niche by interest but necessity.

  3. I am still one of those gardeners that tries to do it all. Most everything is fair game, but I am not into container gardening, though I have quite a few. My favorite part is the ‘bones’ of the garden. I like shrubs and trees most. Propagating is good. Free plants-heck yeah!

  4. Dave,

    Tried Blue Mist bush many years ago, it looked great the first year then crapped out on me the next few years, finally I removed it.

    Our niche is butterfly gardening, to be honest with us it is the location much of the surrounding area is still fairly native.

  5. Dave, You are the Professor of Propagation for sure! You have had great success. My niche has always been cedar glade plants, which grew out of necessity (like Janet) and then grew into a deep appreciation for native plants. Special exotics are welcome, too;-)

    Gail

  6. My niche is: plants that can survive flooding.

    Actually, I don’t know that I do have a niche. But I do love plant propagation. Very low tech plant propagation. The last three years I’ve probably started 250 plants from seed, division and layering. I have a lot of space to fill.

  7. I wish I had a 3-car garage! Two bays for the autos and one just for playing with plants! You have such fun with this and a great inspiration for others to give it a try. Ah, now I am going to do a bit of day dreaming of wining the lottery…

  8. Skeeter,

    Of course you could treat your garage like we treat ours…two bays for playing with plants and the cars sit outside. 🙂

  9. Hi Dave, HA, you are for sure the king of propagation, plant propagation that is. I had to go look at what I wrote last year, since I have had so many niches and that is just what I wrote. The veggies are taking my time at the moment, as I am a novice at that. Also, continuing the search for plants to give year around interest. Winter is much better now, but August still needs work! And more emphasis on design that also looks good all year with lots of grasses and perennials that stand tall through the winter. And the wildlife berry thing too. Just can’t pigeon hole my niche. 🙂
    Frances

  10. LOL, that is funny Jenny. Yes Frances, I am on to that also with Jenny. lol… I am a bit of an auto fanatic and like my car and truck staying clean so they go into the garage. I find it funny when people leave their two $30,000 (or more) car/truck in the driveway while they store nothing but junk in the garage. Does not make sense to me but plants, now that is another thing. But one must have an enclosed garage to know this. We have a 3-sided garage with no door or electric and sitting many feet from the house. Arg, and to think an attached garage was one of our “Must Haves” with buying a house. Gee, recon all the woodsy land won over on the garage…

  11. I do remember that post and I still love containers. Thank you for the link.

    I’ve learned a great deal about plant propagation from reading your blog. I knew the mechanics of it but how many of us actually do it? You are good at telling….the rest of the story and filling us in on the progress.

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