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crossvine is now in bloom in the midlands of south carolina. I took a couple of cuttings to experiment with its propagation. has anyone rooted this plant by simply sticking the cuttings in a bottle of water and forgetting about them for a time? anyone taken the rooting hormone and perlite route?

I have taken several cutting from my Dads cross-vine and it died every time. He told me to just put in the ground and it will grow. My dad has a green thumb. He can make anything come back from the dead and make it flourish.

Well, I'm pretty good at growing things, but the stick it in the ground method has never worked for me for cuttings. The issue is that the cutting has no roots, so in the ground it can't get water or nutrients. They tend to die before they can grow enough roots to survive on. What works for me is the soda bottle humidity dome. I usually just put moist potting soil in the bottom part of the bottle. Put rooting hormone on the bottom of the cutting, stick it in, mist everything, and tape the top part of the bottle on. That holds the humidity in and keeps the cutting from shriveling up while it is working on growing roots.