Plant Propagation for Home Gardens - Growing The Home Garden

Here is a list of topics about propagating plants for your home landscape that I’ve written about here on Growing The Home Garden. The first four posts have some important information on propagating plants while the individual plant posts offer information about propagating the plant in question as well as my own experiences with them. Enjoy!

Plant Propagation Techniques

What is Plant Propagation?

Plant propagation has to be my favorite subject! Plant propagation is one of the most inexpensive ways to make more plants and expand your gardens. There are several methods of propagating plants and three of the most common ways are through through division, through layering, and through cuttings. Each of these methods has a few advantages that are worth looking at. Some of these methods will work for some plants but may not be effective for others. Here is a short summary of these methods.

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Plant Propagation Method: Division

Dividing plants is a very good method of propagation for many clump forming species of plants. Hostas, heucheras, daylilies, ornamental grasses, and many other perennials will not only tolerate but sometimes need to be divided. It is better to divide most plants in the spring when they are actively growing and the roots can take some abuse but some will successfully divide in the fall. You don’t have to divide plants until they have developed a dead hole toward the center, but if you would like more plants faster, divide away!

Plant Propagation Method: Layering

Layering is a safe strategy for many plants. It involves burying a length of a low growing stem underneath the soil until it develops roots. Then the gardener can sever the new plant from the mother plant and plant somewhere else in the garden. To speed up the process the stem can be wounded and applied with rooting hormone but many plants naturally layer by themselves. Viburnums, forsythias, and azaleas are good candidates for layering along with many other shrubs. This is a safe method of propagation since the stem remains attached to the main plant until roots are formed. There is very little risk involved for the cuttings. The biggest disadvantage is that you can’t make as many plants as you can with cuttings.

Plant Propagation Method: Cuttings

This is probably the area I have the most fun experimenting with in my garden. There are several different types of cuttings you can take from stem tips to basal root cuttings. Some plants take to cuttings readily while others can be a difficult challenge. Most perennials will easily work with stem tip cuttings or basal stem cuttings. Trees and shrubs can be more difficult, but if the plant creates suckers there may be good rooting material. My favorite shrub for propagating through cuttings is the red twig dogwood. I’ve found that they work best as hardwood cuttings done over winter. Salvias, verbena, Russian sage, catmint and many other perennials work well as stem tip cuttings.

More Information on Plant Propagation for Home Gardens

The links below will give you some solid information about the process and procedures for propagating plants.

Propagating Shrubs and Trees

The links below will give you specifics from my experience on how I’ve propagated various plants. Many of the techniques cross over to other plants.

Propagating Perennials and Annuals

Fall Plant Propagation Updates: How my Summer Cuttings Rooted

In my latest YouTube video I went through and checked on many of the plants I’ve taking cuttings from this summer. There are a variety of plants in the video including rosemary, ninebark, fothergilla, boxwoods, crape myrtle, and cherry laurels. This was actually the first…

How to Make a Simple DIY Home Plant Propagation System

Making your own plant propagation chamber is not a difficult task at all. For the home gardener who is only doing a few cuttings at a time propagate plants for friends and family a plant propagation chamber can be a VERY simple project. In fact…

Two Cool Plants to Propagate in Spring: Agastache and Salvia

My addiction to plant propagation has reemerged from it’s winter slumber. It’s Spring which means it is time to get many kinds of cuttings ready for growing. It’s still early and many of the plants I’d like to propagate still don’t have adequate foliage but…

Garden Tips for Before a Frost

As the first frost approaches, now is the time to take essential steps to protect your garden and set yourself up for success next spring. Below are a few simple garden tips that can help you save money and preserve your favorite plants while extending…

How to Propagate a Deciduous Magnolia Through Layering

Layering is a fantastic way to make more free plants with very little risk. Propagating a plant through layering usually involves pinning down a branch to make contact with the soil so that the branch can begin forming roots. I’ve used layering to propagate more…

How to Propagate Variegated Hydrangea from Cuttings

While we were out of town this past weekend we visited one of my wife’s aunts. She has a custom built log cabin in the woods surrounded by her garden. Since her property is very shady one of the most prominent plants in her garden…

How to Propagate ‘Purple Homestead’ Verbena

Flowering of the Purple Homestead Verbena If you haven’t tried growing ‘Purple Homestead’ Verbena in your home garden you really should! I’ve used this purple flowering perennial in three places so far and can think of many more locations I would like to see them….

Plant Propagation by Cuttings, Tips and Other Information

Propagating plants by cuttings is by far the most common way I propagate plants. When you take a cutting from a plant you are making an exact genetic duplicate of the original plant. Essentially it’s a clone. No you won’t see any George Lucas movies…

Rooting Leaf Cuttings of Sedums

Every now and then there is a plant that will root from the leaves, like Asiatic lilies I wrote about earlier in the year. Sedums are another one of those kinds of plants. Recently I rooted several cuttings of ‘Autumn Joy’ sedum and another sedum…

18 Plants to Propagate in July

July is a prime time to propagate plants from the garden. Summertime plants generally have plenty of good growth that is at the ideal stage (softwood or semi-hardwood cuttings) and have plenty of time to make enough roots to overwinter well. Plus the summer heat…