Crazy Thought? Maybe Not! (Butterfly Bush Cuttings)

Last night I had a crazy thought “why not take a few last minute cuttings before the cold weather moves in for good?” The cuttings would need warmth to root and survive, so keeping them outside was not an option.

I found a decorative pot that my wife bought a few years ago at a campus art sale back in college and filled it up with sand. Sand works great as a rooting medium for cuttings. Then I went out to my butterfly bush and took enough greenwood material to make 8 cuttings. I cut each of the cuttings to about 4 inches long with at least two nodes and a couple leaves. I pinched the growing tip from the top of each cutting and dipped the bottom of the cutting in water. Next I dipped the cutting into some powdered rooting hormone and inserted it into the sand. Finally I put it in our bathroom and watered it!

A while back I put a small shelf between the two windows in the bathroom. It’s a great location since there is a good amount sun by the windows and there is humidity in the bathroom. It doesn’t look too bad at all with the decorative pot!

I’ll check them in a few weeks to see if rooting has started, then pot them up in a good potting mix. I’ve been fairly successful with rooting butterfly bushes like this in the past so I anticipate good results. The mother plant was a declining nursery stock plant that I bought for $5 and nursed it back to health. Now it’s an extremely vigorous and attractive butterfly magnet!