New Plants from Old Stems?

How cool is it that you can get new plants relatively easily from old ones? Every year I buy seeds and seedling mix and start dozens of plants in my warm March bathroom.  But I also try (I don't always succeed) to take cuttings from plants I like and grow new ones.

Some of the plants are my own, some belong to friends. I've learned that a gardener with a beautiful plant is always pleased to be asked for a cutting since it means they've grown a great plant well enough to be coveted. (A little praise also eases the request, too.) And if we choose carefully, the cutting can help the plant, as good pruning usually does.

When my own plants get overgrown and leggy, some of the stem tips I snip off become new plants. Every fall I snap off the longest stems of my geraniums (pelargoniums, not true geraniums)

and pot them up in a loose potting soil, to produce roots over the winter in my unheated garden room. By late Spring, they're ready for their own pots on the porch steps. Some of the plants growing there all summer are more than ten years old - if you consider the rooted stems are part of the original plants.

I also grow Coleus for my hubby - he likes the amazing colors the professional horticulturists have developed: purple, flame-red, lime green, sometimes with ruffled edges and multiple colors on the same leaf. So I either grow them from seed or buy some of the more unique plants every summer. Since Coleus will branch if I pinch the smallest leaves at the end of each stem, I maintain the plants all summer with little snips. But by the end of summer, the plants are big and blousy so I get more serious with my pinches, taking three sets of leaves with each pinch. These little stems will root in water wherever there was a leaf node- you can see the node here where the lowest leaves were stripped off.

extension.missouri.edu

I want to have four leaves above the water to keep the photosynthesis going and two nodes below to develop roots. I've collected lots of little glass containers (jars, drinking glasses, vases) and they look sweet sitting on my kitchen windowsill with tiny plants growing in water. Once the roots are well developed, I pot the little plants up in potting soil and my hubby has a whole new Coleus garden to admire.

This whole process is called Propagating from Stem Cuttings and the Coleus is the simplest since it has a succulent-type stem that holds water easily. Besides coleus, I've grown Basil, Tradescantia (commonly called Wandering Jew) and Pothos in water. If you have a stem that is more woody, the process is a little more complicated since you'll need rooting hormone and potting soil or sharp sand to start the roots.

There's lots of information in these two publications if you're adventurous and want to try something new:
http://4h.wsu.edu/em2778cd/pdf/pnw0151.pdf
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/ho-37web.html

You can even start new plants from a leaf! You can't do it with every plant but it's pretty crazy to see when it works - the two publications will tell you how, if you're curious. For right now I've got a grocery store Leek on my windowsill - the Leek stem has been eaten but the base has been carefully watered until a stem sprouted.  Once it's big enough, it'll be planted out in the vegetable garden, growing for an autumn soup, flavored with the Rosemary I grew from a stem from Trader Joe's refrigerated herb section. What fun!