I'm bringing you along on a horticultural adventure. I need more plants (I have a big garden) — more than I can afford. Free plants, how can anyone turn that down? I am going to try propagating from some of the garden favorites that I already have. Have you done this? It is all new to me, but I have known many a successful gardener that did it… so I am jumping in.
Here are some reasons to try propagating:
1. You need/want (is there a difference?) more plants.
2. You want to make a stronger design statement — one of something is never as good as many of something
3. You need something green to fuss and marvel over as things start to die down outside.
I am going to experiment with these plants:
1. Boxwood - I have two beautiful dark blue-green boxwoods that were saved from a client's garden years ago. I have never seen others so thick and so dark — I love them and want more. I found good advice on taking boxwood cuttings here and here. Seems like this is a good time of year to do it, so I am headed to the garden center to get some rooting horomones and some potting soil.
2. Hydrangea - My reading on this is that perhaps the fall isn't the easiest time to try (it is apparently more successful in the spring)… but since I am dragging out the dirt bags and pots, I am going to try anyway. I have a stunningly gorgeous deep blue hydrangea that came with my house — f I had a few more to spread around, I would not only be able to fill some empty spaces, but it would visually tie in the one that I already have.
3. Geraniums - These are reputed to be one of the easiest things to propagate...so I am going to try them out so that (hopefully) I will guarantee at least a little success.
Have you propagated plants from cuttings before? I would love to hear your experiences and advice. And if you're interested in joining in on this fall experiment, fee free to comment with what you are going to try and them come back and let us know how it went.
Also, Just a note about free plants: you can split many plants into smaller clumps and get free plants that way, too. Grasses are great for this. If you have questions about whether a plant is best duplicated by rooted cuttings or splitting you can always google it, but feel free to ask here and we can see if the collective knowledge can answer your question. And finally, HGTV has a great post about what other plants might be good to propagate from cuttings.
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Impatiens and all succulents are quite easy to propagate -- no rooting hormone needed. Mint and basil root fairly well in water, as well.
If you root cuttings in water --- keep the water fresh! Change it at least every three days, or things start to rot and smell and die. Trim off all leaves that would be below the water line. They will rot under water.
Start off with twice as many cuttings as you think you'll need. Some make it; others don't. If you end up with unexpected bounty, pot up the extras and share!
Can you propagate from wild plants? I know they could be considered weeds, but I'm wondering whether I could snip a few of them and propogate them that way.
I read the HGTV post on how to propagate and the last step has me confused. It says to keep soil moist, then "Harden off, and plant out once rooted." What does "harden off" and "plant out" mean? Does "plant out" mean you can take it out of the container and put it into the ground?
If I want to keep it in a container, should I propagate in the container I intend to use so I don't have to move it?
Pi, "harden off" means to slowly introduce a plant back to outdoor conditions. For instance, if you've had a plant that has spent all winter in your cozy warm home but you want to plant it outside in the springtime, you'd start by putting it outside each day for just a few hours during the warmest part of the day. You gradually increase the time that the plant is spending outside until it's out there all the time and ready to be "planted out" into the ground.
Wow, to "harden off" sounds really time consuming!
I've propogated a few types of plants, but the easiest have always been this green vine I have (my mother gave me a cutting when I moved away and now I have 3 full lush plants), and some purple clover. The purple clover is really easy and quick, it only takes about 2 weeks and it's ready to plant. Just cut off a healthy stem and stick it in a bud-vase!
I've been trying to root some outdoor ivy, changing the water every few days, but instead of growing roots it's just dropping leaves. Maybe I need to add a rooting solution?
Hardening off doesn't take as much time as it sounds. The later in the season you wait, the quicker it goes. Usually takes less than a week and expect the plant to loose most of it's leaves. Start it when you have a warm, moderately sunny, dry, not windy forcast for the weekthen just leave it out for the day and bring it in at night for about 3 days. If you can make the first two days shorter it helps but is not required. The next two leave it out after dark but bring it in before bed. Then leave it out overnight and you're done.
the other thing you can do to harden off is, if you have a sheltered front porch or an area not in direct path of wind/sun/cold, you can leave the plants there and then bring them in later in the day.
I'm a bit of a lazy gardener, so I tend to use a cold frame style to harden off. Once outside, unless it's going to drop down to freezing, I don't bring it back inside.
look up layering or trenching for the hydrangia, then you can do it now in the fall and dig it up in the spring and move it. I'm doing it in a few cheapo plastic pot with a slit down the side with 2 branches into each slit, the branches are buried in regular potting soil/dirt from the yard, I stripped the bark on the stem edges that are under the dirt and theyre surviving from the main plant but come spring I'll cut the stem connecting them to the main plant and move them and they should have grown roots in the pot enough to survive on their own. google trenching or layering and it will make sense, i'm only doing it in pots because the plants are growing over the driveway where I would have dug the trench and I'm hoping its easier to replant.
Other plants that are easy to divide: Ferns (e.g., staghorn and maidenhair), bulbs (e.g., daffodils, gladiola, chives, and lilies), daylilies, hostas, bamboo (which is a grass), cast iron plant (Aspidistra elatior), and purple heart (Tradescantia pallida).
Growing from seed is also very smart if you're after free plants. For example, rain lilies (Zephyranthes) are pretty expensive by the bulb, but they grow ridiculously fast from seed and will be flowering size in 2 years. You can have hundreds of flowering bulbs in 5 years if you're good about sowing the seeds as soon as they're ready. I usually cut a tiny trench (maybe an inch deep) in the soil and sow right away. If you do it in a line, you'll be better able to recognize the young plants as rain lilies rather than weeds because a near perfect line of identical plants is pretty unusual in the garden.
Also, be careful about your mowing habits if you're wanting to maintain wildflowers or bulbs in your yard. My backyard is covered in wild oxalis bulbs because they've been allowed to go to seed and spread.
My hydrangeas seem to naturally trench and propagate themselves each year, so I just use those = no effort! Love those things. As for cooler weather, I'll hold out until later in the season when I can start my winter sowing. I did this for the first time this past year and ended up with a BOUNTY of perennials for pennies--boatloads of columbine, agastache, and different catmints. I didn't have any luck with tiarella seed or even my heucheras, which surprised me. I'm harvesting seed from my heucheras again this year and will give it another shot. But by and large, I am totally sold on wintersowing as an economical way to feed my plant addiction.
Benary Giant Zinnias have to be the easiest plant I’ve ever “cut and stuck.” The sheer amount of flowers they produce for cutting is outstanding. I used to do all the steps… but this year, I just cut them and stuck them right in the dirt where I wanted new plants. They look terrible for about a week, and you think they’re dead… and then voilà… I did an entire flowerbed with “second generation” plants, and they turned out amazing.
Perlite and rooting hormone does wonders.
Did you know: hybridization is copyrightable, so propagating some plants is actually illegal. Yeah, I don't know how anyone would find out, either, but sometimes I find it funny to be a wet blanket. : )
@ Duluthgirl - yeah, my Drift carpet roses came with a tag prohibiting asexual reproduction. Probably not much of a concern for hobby gardeners (doubt that Conard-Pyle is going to drive down my block to make sure I still only have the 3 I bought) but definitely not something you want to do if you're selling the resultant plants.
I'm getting ready to divide my irises (all gifted divisons themselves) this weekend. I think I'll leave the daylilies alone this year, but the wormwood and lambsears could use some dividing.
I took hydrangea cutting a couple weeks ago and they are doing great! I tried a couple years ago and failed but this time I made the worlds easiest mini greenhouse... a clear plastic pin. I took 3 hydrangea cuttings and put them in a solo cup of vermiculite with drainage holes in the bottom. I have only had to add water once in "the greenhouse" and they are looking healthy, sprouting new leafs and have definitely started to root.
This year I am also starting coleus and impatien cuttings - I have read that you just bring them in as a houseplant and take more cuttings later in the winter so you will be ready for spring.
I have also had great luck asking on my local freecycle board looking for cuttings of plants or even whole plants that can be split (hostas, pachysandra, coneflower, daylilies, lavender and my hydrangea)
Hostas have got to be the drop-dead easiest to divide, those and daylilies can grow quickly and easily just from a piece of root. I put daylilies next to the road up here in the northeast where they are heavily exposed to salt from the roads in winter, and they still come up like crazy every year. I also recommend butterfly bush for propagation--it will root in water on its own. Hibiscus takes pretty easily, any nice vine--wisteria, trumpet vine, hops vine--also spirea, stonecrop! pachysandra, so many! Basically look for something that grows and spreads rapidly and take a cutting and put it in water. Often, rooting hormone won't do a whole lot more for you.
This fall I've taken cuttings of those beautiful chartreuse and purple sweet potato vines to hopefully keep through the winter and put out next summer. They root like crazy!
As for wild plants--mint grows like a weed--I'll include it here. But also try wild ginger--it has a lovely shape, but grows very slowly.
Just learn HOW to take a cutting and where on the plant to take it, and start robbing your neighbors!
I filled a container with sand, stuck my little cuttings in, covered with a plastic bag. All you have to do is keep the sand consistently moist and gradually take the plastic bag off after a couple of weeks. I did this with butterfly bush and hydrangea this year. Did it in the past with boxwood. I used softwood cuttings in the spring, and they took all summer to root. I killed them accidentally when I went away on vacation and forgot about them for a week. That was a HUGE disappointment.I think that unless you want a perfectly identical hedgerow to match something you already have, it's much easier to buy boxwood. They're not so expensive or rare that it's worth the effort to propogate. And they will take FOREVER to get to a respectable size. Save the space for your favorite coleuses and geraniums.
African violets are the EASIEST houseplant to propagate. We did this all the time when I was a little girl. Take a glass. Cover the lid with aluminium foil. Cut a tiny slot in the middle. Cut a healthy leaf off of an African violet plant. Plop the leaf in the water. Once you see roots, then plant and enjoy the growing process.
Oh, I thought of a funny succulent propagation story. I dropped off a person, who shall remain nameless, at the local transit station. I hung back to make sure their car started ok. They came over and said that they weren't leaving right away. This person showed me a pair of plant clippers and pointed to the beautiful succulent next to their car. I shook my head and advised to make it quick and subtle since there are security cameras everywhere. A few months later this person arrived at my home with a beautifully potted succulent that looked quite familiar. I asked, "Am I going to get in trouble for receiving stolen goods?" They just gave me a sly wink.
Rosemary and oregano are easy to propagate. (Warning -- oregano is cousin to mint, so it will SPREAD, which is how I propagate it. I yank it up where I don't want it to be and stuff the resulting rooted bits in pots.) Rosemary does well if you use late spring cuttings, strip off the lower leaves, dip in rooting hormone powder and plant in good potting soil with some perlite added to keep it light. Keep damp but not wet. My basil self-seeds, and so does parsley. Chives can be divided when the clumps get big, and will also self-seed. Impatiens and torenia (a LOVELY plant if you've never grown it) will also self-seed down here. Torenia doesn't show up until LATE in the spring, or even early summer, so don't despair if they don't show up early.