Forsythia cuttings. Update. 6.4.2021

 These are some of the forsythia cuttings I took April 25th, so about 6 weeks ago.  The goal is 10 plants for a forsythia privacy hedge.  I'm pretty sure the parent shrub is Lynwood Gold.  I grew that shrub about 15 years ago from a found cutting, a discarded pruning found on the street.   

There are lots of internet articles that state how easy it is to grow forsythia from cuttings.  It's difficult to locate articles that show actual progress.  Here are mine so far.

About 6 weeks ago, I took prunings of wood from the forsythia bush.  This was just after blooming.  The prunings were a bit thinner than a pencil.  Pencils are the devices that people used to use to jot things down, before there were cellphones.  Similar in size and shape to chopsticks. 

I made an about 1 inch long, vertical incision in the lower couple of inches of the cuttings.  I dipped the cuttings in Dip'n'Grow, 5 seconds.  Six of these went into water.  Nine of the smaller ones went into seed starting medium, which I made into tiny greenhouses using bread bag size plastic bags.

I kept these in a shady east window. I changed the water a few times, when it was starting to look cloudy. I didn't think much was happening, but a few days ago I changed the water again and saw some roots.

Today is mild, so I decided to plant the most vigorously rooting cutting in potting soil. I watered well, and placed the planted cutting in a location that is fully sheltered from the sun.

If this survives for a week or two, I'll think about potting the other three that are showing a little bit of root growth. Meanwhile, they are in fresh water and back in the East window. I don't know if the cuttings in seed starting soil have roots. They wilt if uncovered for two hours. Their growth is kind of puny. There are also three ground-layered starts. No way to know if those have roots - top growth is vigorous but they are still connected to the parent plant. I may be able to obtain one or two divisions from that plant this fall. Somehow, if there are two divisions that make it, three ground layered plants, and five cuttings, that gives me the ten I want. If other cuttings also grow, that's a bonus. So far, the most obvious and quickest rooting result is in water. And that appears to be quite variable.