Q: My husband said that you mentioned on radio the possibility of rooting hydrangea plants in the winter. Was he kidding?

A: Many and varied are the methods folks use to propagate hydrangea. One gardener says she takes twelve inch cuttings in December and pokes thirty of them into a bag of potting soil laid on its side. She says most will form roots and be ready to transplant in mid-May. Another gardener sticks cuttings into the soft humus at the bottom of his wire compost bin. He carefully removes the topmost material in the bin in May and finds several rooted cuttings. If the nearby soil is reasonably soft, you could probably push foot-long cuttings into the ground beside a hydrangea shrub and cover them with a bottomless milk jug to get rooted cuttings in early summer.