Tip Root Transplanting… Forsythia :D

Last year a little later in the season I decided I wanted put the aggressive Forsythia that have damn near destroyed my foundation to good use.  My mother has one that is easily 25 feet across mass of yellowness in early spring and crazy green mob the rest of the year.  That I thought would be perfect to put between me and the six houses that back up to me on the what was beautiful sunset over the river at the highest point before the land goes flat of fields woods to river, now is the ass of a bunch of houses.  So Forsythia are very aggressive plants and they grow quick.  I have one I butchered to a stump all the way across the side of my house that is now as tall as the house again less than five years later.  And in a more suitable area they would grow even faster.

So a tip rooter.  This is a plant that as the long strand like branches grow tall they bend over and back down to the ground from their own weight, or a good ice storm, or what ever, the “tip” reaches back to the ground and starts to root.  This makes a whole new plant.  Now you can cut the branch above the root, with a few leaves and plant it somewhere else too.  Or you can let it just grow up and eventually the branch breaks but by then the plant is healthy and has numerous new branches all over the place.  Now I think it takes the actual plant a couple maybe five years to start really tip rooting on its own, but there is  where you can go cut the branches flip them over in a vase of water and they will bloom and root.  Now I have not actually gotten that to work yet, but i tried it in a utility sink on the back deck that i kinda forgot about. In theory that is how it is supposed to work.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I checked the tip rooter that I transplanted last year.   Now I will be honest, I thought I planted three of them, only one survived.  I may have mowed over the other two, or they just may not be up yet.  Probably didn’t make it.  I did a good job planting the first one, and then the second two, I’m sure I got tired.  The one that did make it, is healthy.  and in a perfect spot.  Also i think I am going to put bamboo down the side instead of all Forsythias anyway.  Then I would have bamboo and a fast growing tall aggressive plant…