So, like I posted earlier today, I went and got some clear plastic cups for planting some cuttings. I drilled a hole in the bottom of each one for drainage and filled each halfway with peat moss and perlite. Probably about 30% perlite. I took cuttings from a very nice looking yellow specimen of Gaillardia grandiflora, or Indian Blanket Flower. These come out pretty variable from seed, and this one has no red on the petals — just yellow. I like it a lot!

I took these cups with the cuttings and placed them in a makeshift little mini-greenhouse made from a box with a large rectangular hole in the top just big enough for one of the clear lids from my seed starting trays to cover the hole. The lid is taped to the box. The whole thing is sitting in the shade on my back deck now. Hopefully, that open shade will give enough light to do better than the fluorescents lights in the basement were for the previous batch of cuttings.

Oh yeah! I spoke a little too soon about failure on the first round of cuttings — it turns out that three of the Missouri Evening Primroses are alive and rooted, and three of the yellow Gaillardias are also rooted and alive. Their leaves are a bit hammered, but I’m hopeful they’ll survive. I did confirm, however, that the clematis cuttings did not produce any roots, just like the Japanese maples.

I think I will try again on the Japanese maple — just the red one in the front of the house, since it seems the strongest, with the least leaf burn and no signs of chlorosis.