Isn’t it great to have a few easy to propagate plants that you can grow to increase your garden? The plants in the video below are all easy to grow from cuttings.
General Propagation Procedures for These Plants (and Many others)
Before you Start Taking Cuttings
As with all cuttings clean your pruners before taking cuttings to prevent disease issues from transferring to your new cuttings. I put rubbing alcohol on the blade with a cotton ball to disinfect the pruners then dry them off thoroughly.
Preparing the Cuttings
Take a cutting that is anywhere from 2-6 inches long and remove the lower leaves. Pinch the stem tip of any tip cuttings. This forces the plant to push energy toward root making rather than flowering or growing. It’s the apical bud. By removing it you signal to the other buds to begin growing. That can help with root formation.
Stick the Cuttings
Dip the cut end in rooting hormone, and plant it in a medium. (These plants don’t require rooting hormone to root but it can speed things along) In the video below I used shaved pine bark (soil conditioner) for the soil medium. You can use potting soil, peat, peat/sand, peat/vermiculite, or peat/perlite. Keep the container out of direct sunlight, and keep the soil moist. Spritzing the leaves with a mist setting on the garden hose can be helpful to reduce water loss especially on hot days!
Salvia, catmint, phlox, monarda, and lemon balm (YouTube video on Care and Propagation of Lemon Balm and Mint) should all root in about 2 weeks. As long as the cuttings are still alive there is a good chance for rooting.
Useful Products for plant Propagation
I’ve used some Amazon Affiliate Links below but I’ve used all of these products successfully and frequently. My Propagating Plants book is from an earlier version by the same author. It was the first one I bought on plant propagation and I’ve used it for a long time as a reference!
Rooting Hormones:
Book for Plant propagation:
Propagation Tools
More Propagation Information from Growing the Home Garden
Propagating Arborvitae from Cuttings
Have you ever considered propagating arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis) from cuttings? It’s an easy and fun way to make more plants. Arborvitae can make a great privacy screen and hedge. Here you will find the steps I take to propagate arborvitae as well as a video…
Rooting Coleus from Cuttings: Easy Method to Make More Plants
If coleus (Solenostemon) is not the easiest plant cutting to root, then it must be ranked at the top of the plant propagator’s list right next to the willows. Here’s the process of rooting Coleus in water. Whether you want to multiply your coleus plants…
How to Propagate Catmint from Cuttings (Nepeta faassinii)
Last Saturday I was shopping at a nursery where I found a ‘Walker’s Low’ Catmint (Nepeta faassinii). I’ve talked about the benefits of Nepeta before so it may not be a surprise that I bought one. I planted the new perennial the other day in…
How to Propagate Arborvitae from Cuttings
As always I’m excited to get new plants through plant propagation and I’m pretty excited to add 5 new dwarf arborvitae to the collection! I bought the ‘Little Giant’ arborvitae (Thuja occindentalis) last fall on the discount rack and planted two of them in the…
How to Propagate Basil
Rooted Basil It’s no secret that I love to propagate plants. I especially love to propagate the easy plants. The ones where success is almost 100% assured! Believe it or not there are a few of those. Basil is one that I almost always can…
Propagating Creeping Thyme
Creeping thyme or Thymus serpyllum makes a great ground cover that is very easy to grow. Once started it quickly grows and spread to fill out areas. Creeping thyme is an extremely easy plant to propagate. Why is propagating creeping thyme so easy? Let’s take…
Discover more from Growing The Home Garden
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.