New Zealand Garden Swap Newsletter

Garden Swap Website - Newsletter Cover - Page 2 - Page 4

Sharing plants through propagation isn't just a friendly gesture but it is actually beneficial to your plants and an economical way to expand your collection. Propagation forces you to take a few minutes and give some individual care to a plant that may have been neglected otherwise. It also involves cutting back a plant that may have become unruly, or digging up a plant that may be too big for it’s current space. Economically it provides you with a number of plants you didn’t have before, which you can then expand to your garden or trade with friends for new plants.

There are many different ways to propagate new plants from your own plants. The following are a few simple methods to get you started.

OFFSETS

Some plants will literally do the work for you by producing little plantlets or offsets from the base of the stem of the mother plant. For instance succulents and cacti will often produce miniature versions pof the parent plant which can be removed and planted in a new container. Spider plants (Clorophytum) and Strawberry plants will send off containing small plantlets that can be "pinned down" into some moist soil, where these will grow their own roots. You can fashion a pin from a paper clip by bending it into a U shape. Once the plantlet has produced it’s own roots, the shoot attaching it ot the parent plant can be cut leaving you with a new young plant.

DIVISION

Division involves pulling up large overgrown plants and breaking them apart at the roots to produce several plants. The best way to prepare for division is to water the plant so it will either come out of the pot or dig out of the garden easier. Smaller plants can be easily pulled apart by holding the plant in two hands anfd gently separating the stems and roots. If the plant will not divide by gentle tugging it is better to use a knife or large pruning shears to get the job done, or get two garden forks and push them down into the centre of the roots then gently tug apart.

CUTTINGS

Some plants will root if you stand them in a jar of water. Remove the lower leaves and snip the end off before putting into water. As soon as roots appear you can plant.

The other way of to take your cuttings by cutting 5 mil or so below a node, stripping off the outer leaves, dipping into some rooting hormone and planting. It may be necessary in some cases to reduce the size of the leaves in large leafed plants thereby allowing more energy for the plant to develop roots. Then you could try out the home made bottle cloche!