{"id":4568,"date":"2025-08-18T07:01:55","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T15:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=4568"},"modified":"2025-08-18T07:01:55","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T15:01:55","slug":"mad-for-propagation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/mad-for-propagation\/","title":{"rendered":"Mad for Propagation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I have always been insecure about plant propagation. This is not to say that my plant holdings have failed to increase. I glory in the fact that many of my garden beauties propagate themselves by flagrant reseeding. The daylilies increase all on their own, as do ajugas and other plants that spread by underground roots, shoots or rhizomes. The quince bush and the oakleaf hydrangea would turn into semi-truck-size thickets if I allowed it.
\n\tAll of that is wonderful, but when it comes to deliberate acts of propagation, my track record is lackluster. I have vowed over and over to grow lots of annuals from seed, only to fail miserably. I am simply too busy\u2014or possibly unmotivated\u2014to start seeds indoors in March, nurture them on the windowsills, harden them off in a sheltered place outside, and finally get them installed in the garden. Even when I have done all of that, the rapacious groundhogs and deer tend to eat my seedlings.
\n\tOccasionally I have succeeded with seed-grown ornamentals, but that success has been largely accidental. Last year I started some snapdragons from seed, and quite miraculously they made it into a large container in the back garden, where they flourished, apparently ignored by the local deer. Much to my surprise, they survived the winter and began blooming again a few months ago.
\n\tThe snapdragon success story is heartening, but as a gardener I wanted more. Garden media is full of people who save vast sums of money\u2014at least by their own reckoning\u2014by propagating desirable plants. Generally I skip those articles, programs and podcasts because they remind me of my failures.
\n\tA few months ago, I found a feature on propagating pelargoniums and my life changed. Pelargonium is the Latin name for the common windowbox geranium and its relatives, the fancy-leaf and scented varieties. I have grown them all and loved many of them, taking delight in their gorgeous colors and scents and ruing the fact that none of them are winter hardy. Most can be overwintered, but they end up woody, leggy, and generally anemic-looking by spring. If you cut them back hard, feed them generously, and acclimate them to the outdoors slowly, they sometimes put on a good show the second year, but great results are not guaranteed.
\n\tNow I am finished with all that geranium-related anemia and uncertainty, because I have learned how to propagate pelargoniums. The key is taking three or four-inch cuttings from established plants, stripping off any lower leaves, and then letting those cuttings sit for twelve to 24 hours. This enables calluses to form on the ends of the cuttings, and those calluses are essential to successful propagation. Once the calluses have formed, the cuttings can be installed in damp potting mix and left to form roots.
\n\tWhen I tried this method, I was primed for failure, but to my surprise, it worked and I now have four adolescent pelargoniums growing nicely in pots.
\n\tMy success with geraniums made me bold enough to try rooting dahlias, which are beautiful and expensive when treated as annuals. Dahlia cuttings, taken from plants in active growth, don\u2019t need to form calluses. Once you strip off the lower leaves, you can either place them in a glass of water or install them in moist potting mix. Top up the water periodically, if you are rooting in water, and pot up the cuttings when you see solid root growth. The young plants will go on to produce healthy tubers, which can be stored over the winter and will grow larger every year.
\n\tI love the various salvias, especially the blue varieties, so my next rooting adventure will happen with that genus. Salvias are part of the Labiateae or mint family, known for rampant growth, so I figure the chances of success are high. I fully expect that next year my garden will be chock full of blue salvia offspring. Best of all, deer avoid salvias, so those offspring will not be in dire peril from four-legged plant predators.
\n\tOf course all this propagation activity would be even more successful if I had my own greenhouse. Maybe if I cut a small piece off the side of my neighbor\u2019s greenhouse, allowed it to form a callus, and then planted it in the backyard, I would end up with a nicely-formed greenhouse by next year.
\n\tWhen it comes to propagation, the sky\u2019s the limit. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have always been insecure about plant propagation. This is not to say that my plant holdings have failed to increase. I glory in the fact that many of my garden beauties propagate themselves by flagrant reseeding. The daylilies increase all on their own, as do ajugas and other plants that spread by underground roots, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2,3,1,5],"tags":[206,3210,3211,64,65,2800,3212],"class_list":["post-4568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","category-uncategorized","category-winter","tag-dahlias","tag-economical-gardening","tag-gardening-skills","tag-geraniums","tag-pelargoniums","tag-plant-propagation","tag-salvia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4568"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4570,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4568\/revisions\/4570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}