- Chucked the maple seedlings that got powdery mildew
- Thrown away about 100 fuchsias i grew 'just because'
- Sold off some of the weeping maples
- Given away half a dozen ex-nursery maples that were piling up around the house.
- Planted or thrown out all 300+ dianthus superbus 'fringed pink' i had laying around the house.
- Sold off or traded my pines for other species i do want to grow
I have rationalized my plants down to an amount nearer 'slightly too many' rather than 'unquestionably foolish in number'. My fingers were getting itchy for some more propagation, and it wasn't just the thorns of the Pyracantha causing it. This time there had to be some actual plan to it, rather than just grow things to be thrown in the bin later. I determined that i should only propagate that which i either want more of for my own use, or is in some way potentially desirable in the bonsai community. I came down to the following list:
- Prunus Mume / Flowering Apricot
- Chojubai / Dwarf Flowering Quince
- Pyracantha aungustifolia/ Firethorn with orange berries (a late inclusion)
- Japanese Maple 'Shishigashira' airlayers for a forest (also a late inclusion)
- Japanese Maple 'Arakawa' airlayer
Starting with Prunus Mume:
While visiting the Botanic Gardens i saw 'Alboplena' in flower, and determined to track a plant down. Low and behold, a nursery near me got a handful or 1.5m tall ones in for a rediculously cheap price and i snapped one up. Later they would get in Double Pink as well for a similarly cheap cost and i jumped at that too! I had done some reading on propagation of Prunus Mume, and the agreed method advocated taking semi-hardwood cuttings in Autumn, sticking them and keeping them in a humid environment until Spring when they should leaf out. Totally ignoring this advice, i cut back my 'Alboplena' after flowering and stuck all the cuttings into a pot of old bonsai soil, did not cover them, and whacked them on one of my benches that gets morning sun and afternoon shade. Despite full exposure to cold nights, they are already leafing out and (i have checked gently) are beginning to root. I also took P. Mume Double Pink cuttings but they are a little further behind. Always worth trying something even if it seems like it won't work.
Pyracantha aungustifolia/ Firethorn:
Only recently i purchased a young Pyracantha, after having been keen to try one as bonsai for some time. It was wildly overgrown, and being unable to cut a plant back without propagating the cuttings, i did a few dozen cuttings rather than waste the off-cuts. I don't know if there is much of an interest in young Pyracantha cuttings, but to this stage they don't require much of an outlay of cost or space. Literally only just taken so i have no updates on these yet and how they good as hardwood/ semi-hardwood cuttings. I have stuck them into sphagnum moss in a mini green house, the kind you pick up for $20 at Bunnings, so it's another of my deeply technical methods.
Chojubai/ Dwarf Flowering Quince.
Recently, in a roundabout way, traded one of my pine trees for a a chojubai clump. Having never grown them before i got stuck into my research. It seemed appropriate time to cut the new growth back for the first time, so i stuck all the cuttings just in case. So far it looks like the majority will not root, but one or two look like they may end up working. Ordinarily rhizomes would be used, and cuttings do sometimes take. Will update if they work out. I have also tried ground layering some of the longer branches too, to see it they will naturally root
JM 'Shishigashira' air layers:
My favourite Japanese Maple variety; I have been fighting a battle with myself not to air-layer everything off my large garden tree shishi, but i will try to take a handful this year and make a start on a forest perhaps. Over the coming years i can keep taking more and keep adding to it if needs be. Last year i found that the single trunk layers work well, and multi-trunk ones not so much, so i'll stick to the single trunk ones. I have not started them yet as the foliage seems a little tender still.
JM 'Arakawa' air layer
My layer from last year ended up failing. I think the sphagnum was too wet and the roots didn't like it very much. I'll try again, and use a good thick trunk this time. The plant is still young enough not to have the rough bark to damage, so i have time to do it now without it looking totally ridiculous. Not yet started as i want the leaves to harden off further before i go ahead.
I had planned to also do cuttings of straight species Japanese Maple to add to my forest, but there are definitely different genetics in there already, and I've got at least 7 straight species of different trunk thicknesses kicking around i can just add in come re-potting time next year instead of needed to keep one specific genetic in there.
Anyway, that's the plan for this year and i'll be excited to fill the garden with more plants once again..........
I am not sure how "fingers itchy for more propagation" doesn't end up with you having "an unquestionably foolish number" again. 
I think it resolves like this ... you have more plants of a species that you actually like - which is a good thing - and you support your addiction and free up more space by selling the offspring of your efforts. Yep, seems like a sustainable addiction.
My own fault being too slow to cover the new shoots. There are undamaged buds, so i've covered them all now and taken some more cuttings. Almost every Alboplena had either rooted or calloused really nicely so i'm really bummed at my own lack of awareness to get them covered sooner. Ah well, we'll see what happens. Virtually all the cuttings were taken as heel cuttings of young branches that were crossing on the mother stock tree. I've done some normal ones in the next batch to see if there is a difference in rooting between a normal nodal stem cuttings and a heel cutting taken directly from the trunk or primary branch. I suppose to call them heel cuttings is not quite accurate; there is a swelling at the base of the shoot where it attaches to the branch/ trunk so i removed this circular swelling with the shoot, rather than actually removing tissue that extends down the trunk with the cutting.
