This year we're really looking to increase our dahlia stock through cuttings. After several years of haphazardly playing around with dahlia cuttings with meager results, I'm trying to take a more focused approach and testing various methods to find by which method I can most easily achieve success.
I took some Silver Years dahlia cuttings, using this method and placed them in a glass yogurt jar of water. The standard advice is to not taking cuttings from hollow stems, that they won't root. But I've ignored that because I'm using this method for taking the cuttings. I can't say whether or not this is going to work, but I like to experiment and I'd like to see whether it's true that you can't root a hollow stem.
These cuttings are sitting in my windowsill at home, and I change the water every day. I've got several other jars of water cuttings going, including Lula Pattie (dahlia), Orange Mint, Chocolate Mint and Basil. It's crazy how fast basil makes roots.
I should know in about 10 days if my dahlia cuttings are a waste of time or if they'll root. I'll update this entry once I have more to report.