5 Easy To Propagate Plants from Cuttings

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One of my greatest gardening pleasures is that of making a new plant, for free!  Well I don’t actually do the work the plant does, but knowing how to give the plant the optimum conditions for rooting is important for success!  The plants I’m listing today for The Friday Fives are easy to propagate plants from cuttings.  In case you don’t know what a cutting is it’s a piece of plant tissue that is removed in order to propagate another plant (Essentially a clone).  Cuttings can be leaves but more often are sections of the stem.  Not every plant propagates easy from cuttings, some are quite challenging, but you can be assured that the plants below are the proverbial “piece of cake!”  Or perhaps I should say “Piece of plant”…

5 Easy To Propagate Plants from Cuttings

Sedum

various types of sedum
Sedums are easy plants to propagate!

Sedum is one of the easiest plants to propagate.  This most likely comes from the fact that they are succulents and retain a large portion of water inside their leaves.  This enables sedums to survive for longer periods of time without water from their roots which makes conditions good for rooting.  Sedums will propagate from both the stems and the leaves.  A stem cutting taken and placed in a moist medium works better than one just placed in water but that can work too.  The neat thing about doing a cutting in water is you are able to watch the roots grow.  The leaves of sedum can root when removed from the plant with a bit of a heel and put in a rooting medium (i.e. sand, soilless potting mix, perlite etc.).  Smaller leaves like those of ‘Blue Spruce’ can be stripped from the stem and pressed into a pot of soil to root individually and make a bunch of plants!

Coleus

Coleus is another easy to root plant.  Coleus works well in water too but you get higher quality roots when it is rooted in some sort of rooting medium.  I use sand a lot since it is cheap but other mediums will work fine too. Take coleus stem cuttings of about 3-5 inches and they should root within a week.

Catmint

rooted catmint cutting
Catmint cutting with roots emerging from the stem.

Catmint!  I love catmint.  Not to be confused with catnip, although they are related and are both easy to propagate.  A 3-4 inch stem cutting of catmint can be rooted in about 5 days but may take longer.  It all depends on the growing conditions.  Warmth can speed rooting which is why heat mats are frequently used to root cuttings.

Red Twig Dogwood

Red twig dogwood is a beautiful red stemmed, winter interest shrub that needs cut back every now and then to replenish its bright red stems. Why not use the cuttings to make more?  For red twig dogwoods I will just stick a 6-8 inch hardwood stem cutting into a pot of soil.  I keep it moist and in about 2 months it will begin growing roots.  You can even bundle the stems together and heel them into the soil.

Willows (trees and shrubs)

Willows are just about the easiest plant to root!  You can stick willows in the soil or in water and expect to get some nice rooting in about 2 weeks.  I recently trimmed the green weeping willow in our back yard and put the trimmings in a vase of water.  It’s beginning to leaf out now inside the house and is beginning to show little tiny root nubs forming on the stems.  I have some dappled willows I need to trim back as well that could potentially make quite a few more plants.

All of the plants listed in this Friday Fives post are very easy to root.  In fact they are so easy to root that you don’t need rooting hormone for anything on this list.  Rooting hormone is useful for some plants to speed up the rooting process but will just be wasted on these 5 plants.

Have you tried propagating plants yet?  Tell us about your best plant propagating experience! 

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5 thoughts on “5 Easy To Propagate Plants from Cuttings”

    • The rosemary very well could root in water. I've propagated that way several times. The bay I don't know. It might work but might be better suited to rooting hormone and soil.

  2. Dave any special needs for Lonicera? I am hoping to make cuttings this spring of the Edible Blue Honeysuckle and would like to take hardwood the hardwood cuttings in April.

    Clayton

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