Air Layering zone 8 in Dec?

My question is if the evergreen plant has mature leaves and is in the flows of its early spring would it also follow that the hormones required for rootmaking are also available? And the follow up question is that besides a slower time frame due to lower light and temp levels, what am I missing on evergreens?

 

What evergreen ? There are many ! and what exactly are you trying to accomplish and how ?

 

Tea olive initially, I have several that are leggy. There are a variety of others that I want to get to as well, winter daphne and acuba and so forth. I have an area in the shade of a magnolia that is getting shrubs and a sitting area because grass will not grow there.

 

https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/earthkind/landscape/air-layering/

Air layering is not difficult to do,, just no guarantee of success !I am not familiar with this shrub but why not just root early spring cuttings ? Seems to be the easier method and more likely to get the plants going at a faster rate ! But if you want to try,, just make your cut in the limb and pin it to the soil underneath the parent plant ! Cover it with soil or sphagnum moss or better yet,, both,, keep it watered well and your fingers crossed !

 

My sphagnum moss arrived last week. I was thinking that since we warm to 70f by the end of Feb that a 6-8 week time might provide roots so that the plants could be seperated into our early spring.

 

Seems like tea olive can get quite tall so you will have to account for that and keep it pruned !
If these are full sun shrubs,, you may have a problem under a magnolia ! Here in our moderate temps weeds will not even grow under a magnolia ! I mean moderate winter temps,,summer is a different matter !

 

They are shade plants. Some, like acuba, will be the only only ones capable of surving that shade lee. But around the perimeter, as more sunlight arrives, other plants will prosper. I have not drawn that area out on the ground, we get far more sun in winter than summer because the hardwoods drop leaves that provide morning shade in that area during summer.

 

Dirt, my vote is that you simply go for it!! Why not,? Experimentation is part of the fun of gardening. Let us know how it goes.

 

Having been married for some decades now, I have developed some idea that my negotiating can be hampered by tales of failure. I am just trying to stay on the postive side of that ledger!