benches of softwood are nearly full

benches of softwood are nearly full. I collect cuttings from mid June until around the summer solstice, this works better than july cuttings - if you can get them after this flush of growth, and before they begin to transition to semi hardwood that's the right window. some bushes especially if they've been pruned will send up large shoots to use, and these produce larger plants in the first year. My flow with these is to collect until third week of june, then in early july start to pot up the ones which have rooted into 21 cell trays with large plugs into a peat mix with low perlite. those trays are then moved to a zone with mist and shade but less frequent, for a week to give the plants time to harden off. like a conveyor belt, the ones in that zone the longest are steadily moved outside. I'm a small nursery, and out of a love for the biodiversity and effort to collect and propagate a large germplasm - this setup can over 150 species or cultivars in small batches, sometimes as few as half a dozen. so a few thousand plants each year, and always new stuff. it keeps me busy until mid august, if it doesn't root by then we go on, the plants need enough time to resume growth and size up before hardening off in sept/oct, we have hard frosts in sept and snow by the end of oct, when it's all packed away in the root cellar, after our fall sale.