Mary,
I've been growing plants from seed via wintersowing for many years. Recently, I've broadened my methods of propagation to include rooting cuttings of coleus, which is so easy my dog could do it. I'm interested in your comment about propagating your Stokes Aster from pieces of root. I just purchased a Stokes Aster from an online nursery that was having a sale, but I only bought one. If they are such great nectar plants, I may want to try to propagate mine. Could you describe how you did the root thing? Thanks,

Martha

PS Thanks for the encouragement re the slow season. I set a goal for myself to raise more Monarch cats than ever before, but can't get started until they show up. LOL

Beautiful shots and terrific encouragement! Thanks Mary! I think that this happens every year. We all get impatient for the butterflies to show up! :o)
Angie

Martha,

This was my first attempt at creating new plants from root cuttings so I'm probably not the best source of advice. On the other hand, if I could do it, it must be fairly easy.:-)

I didn't take notes and I don't remember if I posted anything on any of the forums. From memory and from what I remember reading on line, I just took the largest fleshy root pieces, cut into about 6 inch lengths and, probably, lightly dusted with powdered root compound, laid them horizontal in a pot of good potting medium and covered about 1/2 to 1 inch deep, depending on the thickness of the root. I use Pro Mix but I'd think any good potting mix would do quite well. Then I just kept the potting medium moist. I can't remember how long it took before I saw new growth but I certainly had new growth by the following spring.

I don't think all plants are candidates for this method of propagation. The plant must produce a fairly fleshy root and I think I remember it should be at least as thick as the lead in a school pencil, up to about the circumfrence of a wooden lead pencil. This gives you an idea of the size root you'll be looking for.

... root cuttings just taken from my smallest potted Stokesia laevis {{gwi:506056}}

Google starting plants with ROOT cuttings and see what pops up. Read as much as you can find about this method, then give it a try. I remember paying $8.00 for this one very small plant and now, two years later, I have 5 humongous plants producing (I'd guess) at least 100 blooms. In fact, I was thinking I should try again with the root cuttings when these plants go into the ground. I like to try new things; I'm not always successful but I enjoy trying.

Now, it may be possible to simply divide your plant at the crown, after it puts on a bit of growth. That would probably be the quickest way to gain new plants, if it can be done. On the other hand, you can probably get more plants from one plant by going the root cutting route. I was just curious about root cuttings and since I had healthy roots to practice on, it was an easy decision for me to give it a try.

Please see the link below for general information on Stokesia laevis - Stokes aster, which mentions three methods of propagation.

In the meantime, maybe someone else on this forum will be better able to advise you. Native plants are becoming so expensive (especially the mailing costs). We can all benefit by learning from each other various methods of propagating our butterfly plants.

Mary

Here is a link that might be useful: Stokesia laevis - Stokes aster

Congratulations on the black swallowtail eggs, Mary!

Stokes asters grow wild all along the roadsides here, which is where I got the seeds to start mine. Now I have so many I have to thin them out every spring.

It's cloudy and sprinkling now, but yesterday I saw a palamedes swallowtail, a BIG silver spotted skipper, an unidentified skipper and a checkered skipper nectaring on the flowers in a patch of them in my garden within a minute or so of each other. If anybody wants seeds, let me know. They range in color from very light blue, almost white, to very dark purplish blue. I like the dark ones the best, as the butterflies seem to do.

Sherry

Thanks Mary.

Yay! Still not too much happening here. A little here and there. Saw my first pipevine male (though I know they were out earlier). So, I will be looking for eggs soon.

Elisabeth