My plant stake came alive

[ragdall]

When I prune my bushes I save long straight pieces to use as garden stakes. I'd brought one inside a month or so ago to tie up my Prayer Plant. I noticed something strange yesterday as I walked past the Prayer Plant
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The garden stake is alive by diffuse, on Flickr

The "dead" stake I'd tied it up to was sprouting leaves.


New branch sprouting from cut branch by diffuse, on Flickr

[maeve]

Delightful surprise, rags. Is that birch or cherry or ...??
My grandmother used to make a new hedge fence by cutting willow twigs
and sticking them in the ground.

[ragdall]

maeve,
It's a native shrub called Red-osier Dogwood. The First Nations people call it Red Willow.

I'll need to find some soil that I can use and set it into another pot. If I allow it to root in the Prayer Plant I soon won't be able to separate the two. Maybe I should check if there are any other sticks from that pruning and try to root them also?

[jennieg]

How interesting! I can remember when I was a child........oh, about a thousand years ago.......a fence along the highway outside the town had a fence which was sprouting. It must have been made with green wood that hadn't dried out and died off.

[ragdall]

Jennie, a sprouting fence would be interesting to see.

I removed the stick carefully from my Prayer plant. It is growing roots. I've put it into a pot of dampened soil.

Sprout and roots by diffuse, on Flickr

When I was looking in my shed for a replacement stake for the plant I saw another piece of dogwood stem. I've pushed it into the same pot of soil. I wonder if it will sprout?

Sprouting stick repotted by diffuse, on Flickr

[maeve]

Red-osier... of course! It spreads well, and is wonderful for basket weaving.

[sandrainsydney]

amazing what happens when I go to a festival!

[jennieg]

Rags, it was! Even as a child I found it fascinating.

Somehow I think my post should have read "a farm along the highway out of town......"