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Home » Miscellaneous » Rooting Dappled Willow from Hardwood Cuttings and Starting a Fun Little Business with Nothing but a Handful of Sticks.

Rooting Dappled Willow from Hardwood Cuttings and Starting a Fun Little Business with Nothing but a Handful of Sticks.

Updated : March 21, 2023

14 Comments

Starting a fun little business with nothing but a handful of sticks.

Dappled Willow, Hakuro Nishiki, is a great plant to grow and sell for a number of reasons. One, they are extremely colorful and eye catching in the early spring. They grow fast and make an excellent privacy screen. They also do well in wet areas. They do well in full sun or partial shade and are hardy in zones 4 through 9.

Beautiful new growth on Dapple Willow, Hakuro Nishiki.

But this post and video are about more than that. I did this video because I want to show you how easy it is to start a fun little business in a really small area of your yard. In this video, I show you how to work in an area no bigger than a dining room table (I’ve been teaching this to people all over the country for years here).

Warning! This video portrays images
of misbehaving donkeys!

In the video I am doing Dappled Willow cuttings as hardwood cuttings and I explain hardwood cuttings in detail here, https://mikesbackyardnursery.com/2015/01/easy-winter-time-plant-propagation-can-home/ and here, and this; https://mikesbackyardnursery.com/2016/09/hardwood-cuttings-winter-of-20152016/

I also promise in the video to share this page on how to make these Homemade Propagation Flats.

Enjoy the video!

Warning! This video portrays images of
really misbehaving donkeys!!!

90 days later when the cuttings are rooted.

In the video I am discussing Dapple Willow from cuttings, I just looked and I have not yet done a post about Dapple Willow with spring photos so I need to do that. But on this page, Our Member Roger Higgins shows us How He Grows Dappled Willow from Cuttings into Tree Form Plants.

We stuck these cuttings at the end of March and by mid summer they are ready to pot.
More images of pulling them out of the flat below.
Dappled willow cutting fully rooted in only a matter of weeks.
In order for them to fill out nicely and make great plants we prune them before potting them.
For me this is always a pretty sight. A bundle for recently rooted cuttings ready for potting.
Seriously, in just a few weeks from this point I’ll customers wanting to buy these.
No, not about cheese crackers! In this video I stick one cutting per pot so I don’t have to pot them later.

In the video I also mention Pink Diamond Hydrangea, see those here. Also Silver Dollar Hydrangea, see those here. And yes, you can grow them from sticks just like I am doing in this video.

As I mentioned in the video you can easily sell rooted cuttings and liners of all kinds of plants in our members area. Just pack them up and ship them to your customers. You will be astonished when you not only see how much stuff is sold in Our Members Area, but how fast many of these things sell.

I didn’t mention it in the video but I also planted out a bunch of Ruby Slippers Oakleaf Hydrangea that I will be doing as cuttings. We have one member that does a lot of these and and as soon as he puts them up for sale he sells out. I’ve bought from him a number of times.

Questions, comments, mean things to say? Post them below and I will respond. Until then, by any and all means stay inspired!

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Comments

  1. SUSAN M MALDONADO says

    July 19, 2022 at 8:23 pm

    Love your precious donkeys ” …Thanks Mike 😉

    Reply
  2. Joanie says

    July 19, 2022 at 7:17 pm

    i had to re-watch the how-to a few times, was too busy laughing at your donkeys!

    Reply
  3. Richard Young says

    June 9, 2022 at 12:11 am

    A question please Mike, I started some hardwood cuttings last year stuck directly into the ground in a small area specially prepared for the job however I found after a heavy frost the cuttings lifted, is this a problem and how can I stop this happening next year?

    Reply
    • Mike says

      June 9, 2022 at 7:24 am

      Richard,

      It’s a problem if the cuttings dried out. You really can’t prevent it, just keep an eye on them over the winter. However, I now do all of my hardwood cuttings at the end of March here in northern ohio. That’s about 3 to 4 weeks before they leaf out. Heaving is less likely to happen then and they root faster.

      Reply
  4. Joyce Parrott says

    May 31, 2022 at 3:03 pm

    A couple of years ago, you suggested a tool to dig with. I think it had a Chinese name. Triangular head, handle about 12 or 14 in. Anyway, I bought one and loved it. I have never used anything else since. Now it is lost. Probably in mulch somewhere. Could you please tell me what the name was. Thanks, Joyce

    Reply
    • Mike says

      June 1, 2022 at 7:32 am

      Joyce,

      It was the Easy Digger. and the Gama Nija Hoe for weeding.

      Reply
  5. B. Johnson says

    April 28, 2022 at 9:53 am

    Hi Mike,
    So I broke all your rules, LOL! (Wish I had this video back then…) In December I took a lot of hardwood cuttings of annabelles, weigela, and rose of sharon, but made them too long with more than one node and stuck them in sand. Well, the annabelles are already showing buds, but, like you said in the video, because the nodes are so far apart, they’re really long! Is it too late to shorten them? Can I just cut them down into a couple of cuttings or should I just leaven them as is and do it the right way next time? Thanks for all you do!

    Reply
    • Mike says

      April 29, 2022 at 8:14 am

      I’d leave them alone for now, then you can prune them after you have them potted. Best to prune when dormant, but you don’t necessarily have to wait until then if they needed pruning.

      Reply
  6. Iceni says

    April 2, 2022 at 12:23 pm

    I am a complete amateur and I love your website. your instructions are so clear and easy to understand.
    I just love your donkeys they are adorable.

    I would also like to know if you can take a cutting from a Giant Fleece flower? I can not find any advice on that anywhere on the Internet. Or are tey seeds only?Thank you Mike for all your videos and advice.

    Reply
    • Mike says

      April 3, 2022 at 8:21 am

      Iceni,

      I really don’t know but I would try softwood cuttings and see how that works. https://mikesbackyardnursery.com/2015/01/easy-summertime-plant-propagation-techniques-can-home/

      Reply
  7. James says

    March 25, 2022 at 2:37 pm

    Great teaching as always, sir! I’ve learned so much from you. thank you for your generous spirit! can you recommend a good resource for bulk trade-gallon pots?

    Reply
    • Mike says

      March 26, 2022 at 8:39 am

      James,

      I can only share wholesale sources in the members area. http://backyardgrowers.com/join

      Reply
  8. Doug E says

    March 22, 2022 at 4:12 pm

    Thanks for the dappled willow vid. -good stuff

    Mike – you mentioned when to do this and what medium you are putting it in but after planting in the dirt do you put the flats in the open element/sun or do you cover them up with plastic like you showed in your older propagation videos?

    Water daily, weekly or ??

    Thanks!

    D

    Reply
    • Mike says

      March 23, 2022 at 8:00 am

      Doug,

      for hardwood cuttings such as these just about any soil would work. I’d don’t like sand for hardwood cuttings because they are not being misted and the sand will dry. I put mine in full sun since it’s early spring and the sun is not that intense. Water as needed, but I really don’t water mine until it’s time to start watering my containers. Spring rains are enough.

      Reply

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