In my travels around the web I came across some sites that mentioned that you could force leaf buds on branches during the winter. So we headed out in the snow looking for trees and bushes that had buds :) We decided to pick a couple of branches off of our Mugo Pine (Pinus mugo) since it had huge candles (new growth buds) and then we took a branch off of one of the wild cherry trees to. We started by making some sugar water in glasses to feed our buds.
Since all of our cuttings had very woody stems we gently mashed them with a hammer before placing them in the sugar water because apparently this helps them to absorb the water more easily and we removed any buds that were below the water level to prevent them from rotting.
Now we wait *grin* Changing the water a couple of times a week will help keep any bacterial growth down and the rest is up to the buds. The kids are really hoping that we get some growth. I'll let you know :)
