I have been propagating for at least 30 years. Lots of winners and lots of losers. Early on, working with nursery professionals the lesson I learned, "if you can't be sure of the species or variety, it is preferable to throw it away to growing it with the wrong identification". Al

I'm not selling anything, never have, but that is an excellent point for those who do. I'm just multiplying the plants in my yard and pots to give family, friends, neighbors. For these purposes, it doesn't matter that we're not 100% sure the fig trees are the turkey type, or exactly which blue Hydrangea or Gardenia were previously planted before I arrived at this place. I know they're happy here and people want more of them. More shrubs and flowers = less mowing. It's all good.

Some of this year's endeavors, to inspire your imagination:

A cane begonia branch that never stopped growing and flowering while making roots:
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A little Hydrangea already making a flower:

Some plants will make roots in water, like Persian shield (Strobilanthes dyerianus):
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and just to see what happens to satisfy my own curiosity first. Every year there's more & new adventures

Several decades I had scores, perhaps hundreds of Sansevieria cuttings. Sansevieria is a good genus for the curious. I approve.

Trying a variety of experiments around my house.

Found some wild Lilies, Lilium columbianum and put a bunch of leaves in pots.

Then found two gorgeous, dark purple, wild Foxglove, Digitalis purpurea. One was perfect and the other was broken 1/2 way up so left the perfect one in the hopes of harvesting some seed if no one goes and picks it. The broken one I pulled up and brought home. I cut it off at the break and stuck the rooted end in the ground, hoping it will take and that the left over leaves will feed it enough to last the winter. The top 1/2 I cut into sections at each leaf and planted. Have no idea if they can root like that or not but hey .. it's a free experiment so why not. Currently have 4 pots and hoping they do root.

Tried rooting some Campanula by the leaves too. Day 3 and still standing strong and healthy so ??? who knows.

... last but not least my 3 packets of Moonflower seeds are just breaking ground today .. YAY!!! A little late in the season but what the heck! They were an impulse buy for a few cents and worth the risk.

I might just keep them potted for this season and plant them out next year.

Oh .. and I bought some Cornus kousa 'Milky Way' seeds and will stratify them this fall and winter them in the garden shed for a next spring planting! VERY EXCITED about the prospect of having a couple of those in my yard.

Thanks, Albert. Nothing happening with the Sans leaves yet, just trying to resist the urge to pull them out and see what's going on. Wow, I only have 4 though.

Good Golly, MzMolly, you are busy too! Welcome to Gardenweb! Curious where in 8b you are, what state, if you don't mind my asking.

My thing the past couple weeks has been the beautiful Begonias my neighbor gave me, without pots. I removed all of the weaker parts and naked stems and potted them separately. Then removed all of the old soil & trimmed the roots, potted them up. All are doing great, even the naked sticks are starting to grow leaves.

I tried putting a couple cuttings of my Mom's Daphne in my yard but I don't think they're still alive. All of the leaves have turned brown & crispy. Will definitely try again, probably in water, that's one good-smelling shrub!

The Cannas I dug out from behind one of her rose bushes are doing well, overcoming the sunburn some of the existing leaves got (by growing new leaves) when I planted them here in a lot more sun. Hoping they feel up to making a few flowers this year.

I took cuttings of confederate rose and put them in water for a couple weeks until I saw little white root nubs beginning. They're potted up now and look like they're not dead, but not going as fast or as easy as I was led to believe by some anecdotes I've read. Maybe the timing.

Last spring, I took a half dozen bricks and laid them on 6 branches of a big old Hydrangea bush. That's on the list for this week - to get those separated and potted, or maybe just put in the yard if the roots are significant. If all goes well, this yard will soon have about a dozen Hydrangea bushes instead of just one.

Gardenia cuttings put in soil about 5-6 weeks ago are struggling but look like they might get going. Another one in water looks a lot more robust but no signs of roots yet after about 3 weeks.

The plants seem to like the heat, but it's got me movin' kinda slow.

I'm in NW Washington. We just moved here and the yard was absolutely bare except for one really overgrown Hydrangia which I chopped back. So you can understand why I'm propagating everything in sight.

It dawned on me this morning that there's no way I can keep my Moonflowers potted for the winter and plant them next spring (doah) but I hope they'll have enough time to flower this fall and maybe I can collect seeds for next year.

The Campanula leaves crashed last night so I doubt they'll survive or propagate that way .. another free experiment so I'll take that one in stride!

I'm pleased to see the Foxglove are still ok. The large leaves are drooping but the small ones are actually standing taller and from what I've read that's normal. The large leaves might droop and fade as they feed the young leaves and put nutrition into building roots. Other people say you can only propagate Foxglove with seeds or root divisions and this will fail eventually but I love experimenting anyway.

Yesterday I found strawberries hidden in some overgrown, old raised beds. For some reason the previous owner put these 4 square, ugly raised beds in the front yard and I'm tearing them out so I dug out the strawberries and stuck them in some water for now. I'll make a vertical planter for them and get them transplanted soon.

AND ... (yes, there's more LOL!) I found some Ostrich Fern growing wild so grabbed a few of the smaller babies and have a perfect spot lined up for them. I have no idea how to propagate ferns so will have to research.

Wow, that's exciting and fun stuff! Hearing others' escapades keeps me inspired to keep "freescaping" this yard.

Ostrich ferns, if memory serves, proliferate themselves fairly quickly but I don't remember how, rhizomes?

I'm not a fan of raised beds either, at least not here. It's so dry I usually dig a little bowl for a lot of plants to catch more water when it comes. Mmmm strawberries - free food rocks!

Foxgloves are biennial, so hopefully your plant will drop some seeds this year to get a patch started. They often live for a few years, but having it come back after flowering is iffy.

Theoretically, I think you can keep moonflowers (Ipomoea vine, right?) alive for winter, but that would be tricky, finding enough light, probably a lot of dropped leaves, and I would predict spider mites due to the weakened state it would probably be in. But there's no rule that says you can't try if you want to. If you ask on the vine forum, you might get some tricks for outside - cheating winter/zone pushing, if that's possible for that vine where you are. Garage? A guy named Ron should be able to tell you. I agree, it's hard to watch those die!

Did you try propagating the pieces of pruned Hydrangea? I haven't had a Hydrangea propagation failure yet (knock wood!)

I grow a lot of perennials from seed, and start cutting them back when they reach about six inches. I can't bring myself to throw the trimmings away and so pot them up. By the time you have twice as many plants as you can use, you think, "what am I doing"? Al

No, I didn't start any hydrangea cuttings. We weren't ready to do any gardening at the time I chopped that back.

Sooo .. the update on the experiments.

1. The Lilium columbianum look as though they are dying. The leaves I planted are turning all black and a gentle digging up of one shows no sign of any bulb formation. I found another one growing wild and hope to harvest some seeds from it, although with only one plant in the vicinity I have doubts the seed will be viable. It's still worth a try.

2. The Campanula I put in the same pots as the lilies crashed after a few days. They are droopy and withered looking but not rotting or turning brown and not dying completely so I just leave them. You just never know what might be going on under the surface.

3. The Digitalis purpurea stem/leaf cuttings I planted are still hanging in there. Small leaves are developing but I'm uncertain yet if they're still thriving off the nutrition from the adult leaf or are now supporting themselves in some way. The adult leaves have turned mostly brown now and some of the young leaves are brownish along the edges too. I just keep watching and hoping. (pic included) You can see the stem of the adult leaf, the two smaller leaves that were there when I planted the stem cutting and all the tiny new growth in the very middle.

3. The Moonflowers are surviving but not well. It's such a wet summer and they just look like drowned rats, poor things. They are trying but it will be a miracle if I see blooms considering how late I started them and what a difficult summer they're having.

Fun stuff, and for sure nothing happens if you don't try. The past week or so I've taken more Gardenia cuttings and Hydrangea. Potted up a mixed house plant pot for a friend. Also took some cuttings of the Lantana at my Mom's house. It's much prettier (pink) than what's at my house (yellow/orange) IMO, not that the butterflies care. Also having some good results with a neglected Philodendron I found in the "ICU" at the garden store. Trying a Daphne cutting in water. Ground cutting didn't work a few weeks ago. I think I should have removed more leaves. Will see how this one does.

Also have (another) Coleus leaf that made roots from the petiole / veins.

There are a lot of propagation videos on YouTube..check them out. White Flower Farm (the seed/plant co.)has some very good ones.. simply explained where even I can understand them!I sat here this morning looking for a video about propagating forsythia, went from that to Rose and then Azalea, hydrangea..and some others.

Cool. A very worthy use of that technology. Thanks for the tip!

Been busy lately, propagating...

Sticking Begonia cuttings at the base of a palm tree:
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Little bowl of mini-cuttings:
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More hanging baskets:

Also planted a clump of little confederate rose cuttings in the front yard but it won't look like much until next year.

Spent a lot of time this weekend putting up more hooks to house all of these things...

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Happening lately...

Lantana

Perilla 'Magilla'

Gardenia

got any named rooted figs you want to trade.

Hey, edible, missed your question when it was asked. Sorry, I don't. AFAIK, the figs that are ubiquitous in this area are all the same, turkey figs.

Confederate rose cuttings taken a few months ago have some buds. Wasn't expecting flowers until next year. Cool.

Neighbor gave me a little palm tree that had a "thing" on the side. I accidentally broke it off repotting, so stuck it in the soil. That was at the beginning of June and this thing's still green...

Sans leaf put in water is making roots.

Repotted my Mom's corn plant and "borrowed" one of the tops which seems to have rooted very quickly, in about a month.

More Gardenia cuttings, just put these in the front yard Saturday.

What has everyone been propagating lately?

I have played around and done propagation experiments for over 40 years now. It never gets old. I like trying new things like growing Amaryllis and Brugmansia from seed. I am now looking in to building my own Hydroponic clonning/rooting system. Lots of good information about it on the Hydroponic Forum.
Clare

Purple,

I've been given so many cuttings I started to have to say no, it was just too much for me to manage. I am just learning the process and have killed about as many as I have alive. I did see someone on the forums mention Gardenia and cut some new growth from one of my plants.

All the conventional wisdom that I've heard over the years have gone out the window here. I was under the impression that many plants had to be grafted onto roots in order to live and then I see people defying that. I have 3 gardenia, two are non glossy leaf plants but one, is shiny and dark. That is the one I'm dearly trying to clone. I have 4 cuttings that are probably 3 weeks old. I pulled out one to check on it, found roots and then stuffed it back in the pot............ripping all the tiny roots off. I felt it as I did it. Lesson learned. Put it in water to help it recover. Leaving the rest alone to develop roots a little longer.

I have hibiscus, several types and so many others plants I can't even identify til they bloom!

Those were hardwood cuttings of the Gardenia, right? My cuttings were new growth.

I'm about to try air layering of my other hibiscus because I think it might be a tad easier than cuttings.

Darren

Clare, that sounds like fun! Good luck!

Darren, kudos to you for getting in there and trying! For sure, not all of my propagation experiments succeed either. But that's just an opportunity to try again.

It's definitely tempting to see if there are roots on a cutting yet. If you pull *gently* and feel resistance, you can know roots have begun to form and are holding the plant in the soil. Some things make tougher roots than others, but I try not to pull them out because it can cause breakage. If I really can't control myself, I prefer tipping the soil out into my hand. It might fall apart if there aren't many roots holding it together, but that doesn't usually result in breakage. To repot, hold cutting in place with one hand while gently refilling the soil, should go back in without too much trauma that way.

Also, if it's been like a month and the leaves are still green, it's still alive. I never give up unless a cutting goes all brown and doesn't recover for a month. Once in a while, you'll get something that completely discards the leaves to concentrate on roots, then suddenly starts growing foliage again even though it looked dead for a while. Doing 4 of something is a great idea, you can unpot one to check the progress and still have 3 good ones if you mess the first one up checking.

I did both woody cuttings and fresh for the Gardenia. With my yet brief experience doing this (first time this year,) it seems that larger, woody pieces are more reliable.

Are the "mama" Gardenias outside in the ground?

I haven't tried any air layering, but have done a lot of ground layering. Does your Hibiscus have any branches that will reach the ground without breaking? You can use a rock or brick to hold them firmly in contact with the soil. If none of the branches will reach, you can also put a pot next to the plant and bend a branch to the soil in the pot, also held in place with a brick or rock. Works great on Hydrangeas and roses!

Great info Purple. I'm learning quickly, the patience part is what is hard, haha. Been gradually weeding out those cuttings from the pots that turn brown and appeared to be dying and then......I pulled one devoid of leaves but was growing roots. I looked closely at similar cuttings that I was going to remove and lo and behold, yeah they sprouted new leaves but they didn't look good. Oh yeah, must be doing something right.

Had problem with fungus so I bought fungicide today to try and help the process when I have a cutting I don't want to loose. I had a cutting of a purple passion vine and it was doing so good and then I saw mold growing on it, wiped it off but alas, it was too late. Luckily I have a plant I can return to (thought this was one of my first cutting successes).

Yes, all the gardenias are planted in the ground(see pic, ignore red flower- potted rose sitting there). The gardenia's all have grafted roots.

After I wrote about air layering I realized, duh, I meant ground. When reading about the process, I got confused with the title of the propagation when describing the paragraph either above or below it. Yeah, I have several in the ground hibiscus that have low branches that I could use.............now if I can only get a break in the rain (3 more days expected here in FL).

I've just started some cuttings in water too.

Darren

Purple passion may have had mealybugs, a white fuzzy bug that is often mistaken for fungus or mold. Whiteflies also like this plant a lot. This is a plant that many people have trouble keeping alive for extended periods, so don't be too hard on yourself about this one. Have you been by the house plant forum yet? (Assuming purple passion can't stay outside all year in Z9.)

Don't really know why a Gardenia would need to be grafted, interesting stuff. They seem pretty easy to propagate, although I know I've only played with the one kind in the yard. Too bad you don't live closer. The house next door is abandoned and there's several huge Gardenias (taller than me) that nobody would mind people taking cuttings from. Next spring I'll be over there getting more. Whenever somebody does get around to fixing that place up, they'll have to start by tearing down the burned up shell of the old house first, which will probably mean that all of the shrubs will be removed or at least trampled to bits by heavy equipment. Some bulbs I want to "rescue" too.

Glad you were talking about ground layering, it's such an easy thing to do, and although some things take a long time, I've never had it fail.

How fun are water cuttings? I keep a few around to show my son. Kids love that stuff.

Great start on your flower bed. Those shrubs are small but look very healthy and ready to grow much bigger.

Heh, my yard is such a hodge podge but I like it. I put in something like 19 azaleas along my sidewalk and still had space for more. Instead I saw some gardenias but wasn't able to get 3 the same. If I succeed with my cuttings, I will dig up the two light colored gardenias and plant my cuttings in their place.

You know, I'm not sure about that zone 9 thing, I tried looking up where I live and I've seen others close by list themselves as 9a, 9b and even 10. I'm on the west coast of Florida around the middle of the state in Tarpon Springs.

I was given the purple passion flower by a fellow gardener I ran across. She had them planted all over her yard and was even using them to provide a canopy over her driveway. I have a plant, in the ground that although healthy hasn't been growing nearly as fast as I thought it would. It has been really hot though and I suspect that is the reason.The cutting failure I'm pretty sure was mold because I wasn't letting my cuttings breathe but I will look closer next time I see it. The pots are in large plastic tubs with lids. I left the lids on too long......lesson learned.

Although I would love to see flowers on my new passion vine, I know it may be next year and then, the plant may be eaten by caterpillars but thats ok. I really am planting it for the butterflies first, me 2nd. I also have a new red seedling passiflora, lady margaret maybe? that I may spray to keep it healthy for at least a year before letting the butterflies get to it.

Been to several forums but not houseplants.

Yeah, just down the street from another gardener I met, I drove by a red passiflora. Hit my brakes and backed up. Couldn't believe my eyes, in just a week I saw two types of passiflora when I hadn't seen any previously. This thing is like your house next door, nobody home. Rental vacated. The red passiflora was completely covering the mailbox and running into the road. Took several cuttings and failed. I was making my cuttings too big, etc..

I just started getting into gardening this summer. Had grown tea roses years, many years ago and was good at it but now I want different stuff. Butterfly/Hummingbird garden along with citrus and vegetable garden. Heavy emphasis now on hibiscus. Trying, reading and learning tons from GW'ers.

Get your cuttings from next door now or you'll regret it. I saw a burgundy hibiscus in front of a home that I put off, it was a rental. I had no idea it was a rental and thus by the time I went back, everything had been tore up. Replaced all plants with a lawn! Uggh.

Not sure about the grafting wraps on my plants but it probably makes them more hardy here in Florida where so many bugs thrive!

So want to get "cuttings" under my belt because I so want to create a really special butterfly/hummer garden and thus be able to share cuttings in the future.

Darren

Oh, when you said purple passion I thought you meant Gynura. Sounds like it's Passiflora you're talking about. Yes, that will likely get devoured by gulf fritillary butterfly caterpillars. That's why my Mom and I have these vines. I like the flowers but don't mind if we never see any. The cats eat everything if there are enough of them at one time but the vines come back from the roots that same year if it's early enough, or the next year if it's already fall.

Some cheap and easy plants that butterflies love are Basil, Zinnias. For $2 in seeds, you can have them visiting these plants all summer. And when Coleus flowers, they love those too. Then there's Buddleia, butterfly bush. If you know someone with one of these, they're extremely easy to start from cuttings and that's where all of the bushes at my house & my Mom's house came from - cuttings we brought from OH. Every spring when I trim them, I stick pieces of it wherever we might want another one and most of them grow that easily.

There are a ton of plants that attract butterflies and hummers. I'm sure you'll have a bunch of them before you know it.

You can double-check your zone by entering your ZIP code in the zone finder and hitting enter.

I wish there was a sense of urgency about the plants next door. That house burned up in April '11 and it's been sitting the exact same way since. Getting frustrating but when I harvest more plants and cuttings I should feel better about living next to that. On the upside, I don't have to worry about walking into my kitchen naked since there's nobody on that side.

Oh, I've seen some gardens, been offered cuttings and given quite a few plants already. We're on our way. Did not know basil was a flowering plant.....learning. Now I do need to get some of those butterfly bush, did not know it was that easy. So, thats one I'd probably be assured of a good cutting eh, haha?

I'm zone 9 according to that zone finder but we really don't get that many cold/freezing days here a year. Probably can count them on one hand.

Yeah, Passiflora, love them! Do have the room for them, so I will probably get more. I have seen coleus many times before and I can't ever remember seeing one bloom.

Seems like the choices for butterflies and hummers are infinite!

Too funny. Nice not to have neighbors peering in your house eh?

Thanks for sharing, do let me know if there is anything I can get you from Florida you may not have access to, cuttings or seed. I'll keep my eyes open. I scour neighborhoods frequently to learn where new stuff is and where I might harvest seeds or ask for cuttings.

Darren

great stuff, propagation is so rewarding, and theres no way to run out of thing/ways to propagate.

I havent heard succulents mentioned here in detail, anyone interested in propagation should invest in some succulents!

Ive only been growing plants seriously for a little over 10 years now, theres I dont know, but ive also been selling those plants in one way or another basically the entire time. That make propagation profitable as well as all the great things already mentioned.
One of my favorites is good ole jade tree, most any crassula really, many other leafy succulents aswell.

When I had all my jades I would defoliate them pretty hard a few times a year, the old leaves would eventually drop any way, it also gave them a nice tree shape. Well id dry em out and lay em on top of the soil, not buried and wait a few weeks. Little pink and white roots would come squirting right out and find their way to the soil. It also providd numerous unique shaped multi stemmed trees that couldnt be made with a typical cutting. Great bonsai material! it would take a few years for em to get up to size, but they did, consistently, and sold, consistently. It was alot of fun to see 100s of tiny plants popin out of severed leaves.
it goes on and on with too, the reason they are work so well for it is their ability to retain water, it lets them just sit there until they form new roots. Most plants arent so lucky, neither are most plant owners!
A bit off topic but this post has steered a bit towards grafting too, if you havent heard of Axel Erlandson, PLEASE do yourself a favor and check this guys work out! Amazing suff, so long ago.

Hey, grabmyhandle! Good to see you over here. Love the pic of your little jade sprout! I had no idea they could do that. Got one of these earlier this spring and have been amazed by how fast it grows, and have taken a couple tiny branches for cuttings. Thanks for the cool pic!

I've been a fan of Axel Erlandson's circus trees, and arborsculpture in general for decades and if I could stay in one place long enough, I've always wanted to try some of these things. It's not at all a new idea, but he did things never before considered, just for the sake of doing it. That's cool. For thousands of years, people have espaliered fruit trees and grapes, but that guy did it purely for decoration and whimsy. He was truly inspired.

This pic is kind of boring coming off of that paragraph, but it's a bunch of Begonia pieces I keep sticking in this pot with a piece of Philo stem that's trying to grow.

Grabme,

Very cool! Yes, for the newbie or veteran, succulents can be fun to experiment with. I was kindly given a handful of pink purslane and showed how to propagate them............."stick em in the ground in 2 inch pieces", thats it. Actually you can leave it on top of the ground and it will grow!! Highly recommended for newbies.

So what kind of trees were those? I have never seen such interesting trees before.

Thanks for sharing.

Darren

Darren, Circus trees.

Wiki article on tree shaping

Good stuff!!

To get people's juices flowing this year, here's some updates on last years' cuttings, and a few new things already showing promise.

Confederate roses (Hibiscus mutabilis) back from last year's cuttings:

Lantana cutting from last year:

Last years' Hydrangea layering, dug this year. Added to base of tree with Oxalis, now no need to try to get mower so close to trunk (when finished with this project.)

More Hydrangea babies planted last year:

None of the other Hydrangeas have buds yet, but this baby put here last year does:

Coleus (and a few other) cuttings saved over winter, added to hodge pots:

Gardenia cuttings put here about 6 weeks ago:

Hydrangea branch, being ground layered, done recently. This is how the other hydrangea babies were created:

Succulents (very recent):

What's going on at your house?

Oh, we've been busy all winter and now I am so glad I did. I have started collecting passion flowers and boy do they attract butterflies...............and caterpillars. Luckily I have duplicates of just about everything I have so I only have to watch a couple of little plants to be sure they don't get killed off by the swarms of Gulf Fritillarys! Great to have such problems, IMHO.

In this photo it is almost all passiflora I believe, First two plants from left are passiflora lady margaret. Cuttings are only 3 weeks old! Next to that you have passiflora betty myles young and passiflora belotii.

One of the best instructional tutorials I read suggested that you grow your cuttings, if small, in clear plastic cups. I can't tell you how much this has helped me learn about different plants. Some takes months to set root and others it seems almost like days.

I've propagated quite a few plants using the inverted cup (self contained greenhouse) method. Fantastic means to keep the plants from having to be watered constantly to prevent transpiration.

It has worked for me on;
passiflora
mahogany splendor hibiscus although just sticking these in the ground would probably work :-)
Edward LaPlante Hibiscus
Musical Notes Clerodendrum
Chinese perfume plant
Butterfly Clerdendrum

still trying to get to root
banana shrub
aristolochia gigantea
mary alice cox camellia

Tried to use my misting bed a little too early and cold hit the majority of cuttings on there. Need to go out to scour for more hibiscus cuttings to place in that. Have a few that managed to limp along through it all.

I almost forgot, managed to get some giant milkweed cuttings going too. Have a few powderpuff cuttings and some others I can't think of at the moment.

Darren

Such a great day .. stopped by a nursery, which turned out to be less retail and more mature plants for landscaping. Had a great talk with the owner and he let me take a bunch 'o freebies to propagate because he was getting ready to winter prune.

4, Hydrangea Macrophylla Tricolor, stems
8, Hydrangea Macrophylla Madame Emile Mouillere, stems
12, Prunus laurocerasus, itty bitty sprouts/shoots
big pocket full of Styrex Japonica seeds

I am a newby at many types of propogation. I tried my hand at air-layering with a rubber plant. I cut 1/3 way through a vagrant limb of my wife's rubber plant and placed a tootpick covered in rooting harmone in the cut. I covered the cut area with damp peat moss and wrapped the peat with plastic. The rubber plant was placed in a shaded area of our backyard. After a couple of weeks I opened the plastic and added water. After 30 days, I checked and the peat was full of roots. I cut the limb off and transplanted the new plant into its own digs (pot). I was very proud of my accomplishment until my wife said, "Where am I going to put another plant?" Oh well, still a beauty of a plant.

Awesome, MzM!

Charlie, not having room for another plant is no reason to not propagate, great job! Plants make fine presents. Maybe someone you know 'needs' one?

This year was a lot less propagative for me. It rained for about 9 weeks for most of the summer. Most of the propagating I did was of this type, in pots.