Toyon, It is a genus Philadelphus. Is it too early in the growing season to take cuttings now?

Linda

Probably not. It never hurts to try.

Linda, I grew up with one of those old smelly mockoranges just outside the back door to the old farmhouse. Dining room windows allowed that smell to blow in on the breezes.

My woody propagation book says June and July for softwood cuttings, and that it is an easy one to propagate under mist. Which tells me that it will work well under a humidity chamber... 2 liter soda bottle. ;) Also calls for rooting hormone no stronger than what you can pick up at Wal-Mart. They say it will root without, but will make a better root system with.

I have read that the "softwood" stage is when it will snap rather than bend. That is where you want to make the bottom cut.

how do u use the soda bottle idea?

Like Toyon says, Philadelphicus cuttings root best if taken from dormant wood in late winter or the early spring. I'v had fairly good strike with cuttings of the double form even without hormone application.

George

I am not an expert or even very experienced but I have rooted mine by pinning branches to the ground at a node until they root.

My sis & I both bought mock orange shrubs this Spring and planted in our yards. We thought they would be like the one our Mom had in the backyard in the 50's, 60's & 70's. That one was a sturdy shrub, no blowing in the wind with willowy branches as these new ones are. Our bushes have buds, but have not opened yet. Will these new bushes have the lovely frangrance as did the one from our childhood?
Thanks, Mary Lou