Tips on Propagating Houseplants Through Cuttings
On most varieties stems will, quite naturally, become leafless and woody in time. When this happens and the plant is no longer attractive the stems should be cut to within a few inches from their base. Keep the potful of stumps as they usually grow again from the base. The stems can then be cut up into sections some 2 to 3 in. in length.
Often enough, with hederas for example, three or four leaves with a longer piece of stem will be used. In these instances it is usually advisable to remove the lower leaf or two and not to bury the remaining leaves in the compost. Plants resulting from this type of cutting are often fuller and of better quality. In the case of cuttings with smaller leaves (hederas, tradescantias and Ficus pinate) it is advisable to insert as many as six cuttings in a pot. Plants so produced are of much better appearance than those from only one or two cuttings in each pot. Hedcras, being easy to propagate, should be inserted directly into the compost in which they are expected to grow – transferring them from peat to compost is not necessary with the easier plants, and causes unnecessary disturbance of the new root system. However, when rooting cuttings of the larger leaved hederas such as H. canariensis they should first be encouraged to root in peat.
Dracaena massangeana is one of the more impressive foliage plants though space demanding, but good value if the room can be afforded. When freely planted in beds of compost or when growing in their natural habitat they become quite substantial plants.
Crowns, for example, because of their highly coloured foliage and tropical origin, are difficult plants to manage indoors if they do not have adequate temperature and a very light position in which to grow. Yet, when propagated from top cuttings 4 to 6 in. in length, they root quite readily in ideal conditions. If need be cuttings of crown can be very much longer and still root with reasonable ease. It may be helpful to know this, so that one can establish new plants of reasonably good quality from apparently poor parent plants. Crotons are notorious for shedding their lower leaves and growing tufts of foliage on otherwise bare stems.
To produce acceptable plants from such a parent the cutting should be removed with about 5 in. of hare stem attached. With a sharp knife make notches along the stem in five or six places that will be below soil level when the cutting is inserted, and treat the notches and severed end of the stem with a rooting powder. Prepare a potful of J.1.P.2 compost pressed down fairly firmly and make a reasonably large hole with a dibber into which moist sphagnum peat should be gently pressed in with the dibher.
The cutting is then inserted in the peat far enough for the leaves to come into contact with the surface of the compost. Cover the pot with a polythene bag. You may be quite surprised at the good results and the amount of root that develops, not only from the severed end, but all the way along the section of stem that is below soil level at the points where notches were made.
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