Planting 3 ft. long cuttings is like planting instant trees. Within a month after they start growing you will have branches and leaves!. The cuttings must be planted at least 5 inches deep, very soon after you receive them. The soil in February is frozen and there is no way for you to dig anything, then all holes must be dug when the weather is nice. October is a perfect time for that.

The cuttings are 1/2" in diameter or less. After you dig the holes, put a bamboo cane in them and cover them so they do not get filled with snow. The reason for this is so you can locate the holes in February if you have a couple of feet of snow. Another item that you should have is enough top soil so you can back fill the holes once the cuttings are planted. This soil should not be frozen (keep it in the house) All these preparations should be done before the ground freezes.

Scratch the lower 4" of the cutting with a blade. You will see light green and dark green. If you see tan, you scratched too deep. Dust that area with Hormodin or any other rooting hormone. I always include enough hormodin 1 with every order. Carefully put the cutting in the hole, backfill and water (I know it will freeze in a few minutes but do it anyway). If the hole is small enough, the cutting will be snug and no other support will be needed, otherwise you will need more support like a bamboo cane driven in the ground parallel with the cutting (you can do this do this in October also, when you dig the hole) and attached to the cutting with cable ties or tape.

When the cutting starts growing in April, all the buds on it will start growing at the same time. Also roots will be formed at the bottom of the cutting.

Does this method work? This is what I did in 2008: My neighbor came to let me know that 3 of my weeping willows were in his property. He had called surveyors and they were putting little pink flags all over the property line. 3 of my willows were indeed 2 ft. inside his property. That meant I had to do something. I told my neighbor I would move them when they were dormant. I then dug 3 holes about 2 ft. deep and 3 inches in diameter( in my property of course). I stuck a bamboo cane in each hole so I could find them in case they were covered with snow when I was ready to use them.

I waited until the middle of February, got my Chainsaw and cut all 3 trees down. I kept the Chainsaw as close as possible to the ground. Then I removed all the branches from the trees so that at the end all I had was 3 long sticks about 12 ft. long. and about 3" in diameter. I scratched the bottom of these cuttings and dusted rooting hormone to the wounded areas and dropped them in the holes. I then packed soil back and had to support them so they would not move at all, for that, I drove pipes in the ground parallel to the "sticks" - and used cable ties to keep them from moving or swaying. I watered them well.

The trees started making a lot of growth by early April. Many branches were removed, specially any that grew below 8 ft. All others on top were thinned so there were only about 4 branches. As the trees grew, I allowed more branches to develop and today, (October 2012) the branches touch the ground. All 3 trees are alive and growing. I did this with a weeping willow but you can also do it with most poplars and many willows. Below is a photo of one of my willows taken a couple of years back. My willows are about 25 ft. tall.

To make these "Privet Standards" I took some 6 ft. privet long cuttings and planted them in large containers for a year. I allowed branches to grow in the top 8 inches of them and started shaping them as they grew. The following year, they were planted in the ground, and shaping continued. Branches had to be removed often from the bottom. As branches grow within the ball, they are bent towards the inside. When I am done with them, they will be solid 16" balls on top of a stick.

You don't have to limit yourself to make just one large ball, they could be 2, 3 or whatever you want. Standards can be made out of many of the long cuttings, such as dapple willow, California Privet, gazi, etc. You are limited by your imagination.

When you receive your cuttings, please plant them right away, if the weather is nice, they will start rooting immediately, if it is cold, the humidity and temperature will keep them alive but if you don't plant them the cuttings will die.

If you plant these cuttings in clay, do not expect them to grow at all. Cuttings planted in clay are not guaranteed. To improve the soil before you plant, drill as deep as you can with an auger, 3" or larger in diameter. Replace that clay with good topsoil, then plant the cuttings on top of that.

If you ordered Gazi cuttings, keep in mind that this tree is harder to grow than the OP-367. Whenever I plant 100 cuttings of gazi, I expect to get about 70 trees to grow.