Growing Plants from Cuttings

For me, there is nothing more satisfying than growing plants from cuttings, rather than buying them ready grown. There’s such excitement when you see new roots emerging from your cuttings. This is the roots of the cheese plant named Franky Big Cheese. He looks like a little man with tiny legs and a big face.

This is one of my most ‘successful’ plants, a cheese plant named Ellen Bella Cheese, who currently works in a local children’s play cafe to promote my book reading session at the venue (and check out her baby photo on the right!):

Growing plants from cuttings is also a very economical way to build a collection of plants. Basically, you are paying a fraction the cost of what you would pay in garden centres or even through private sellers. Recently, I bought a nice collection of cuttings from Emily Glanville. This is her Instagram page: bonsaiandbloom. Emily is from Bedfordshire, UK, and I paid £7 for a box of cuttings (and that includes postage). The box arrived within a day! My £7 purchase below:

How to grow plants from cuttings:

You can propagate in water until some roots grow or straight into the soil (use a potting mix) after applying rooting hormone. Propagating in water will risk your plant to rot, especially if you do not have enough sun. This is what I do, with relatively high success rate:

Option 1: Hybrid

I leave the cutting in water for a couple of days, and then I apply rooting hormone and plant straight into a pot.

I cover the pot with a clear plastic bag to ensure that it has the optimal environment.

Option 2: with LECA balls

You can buy LECA balls online quite reasonably. These are clay balls and excellent for propagating larger cuttings. Just put your cutting in a pot of damp LECA balls and stand the pot in a shallow bowl of water. Remember to rinse through the balls (leave the plant there) and change the water in the bowl regularly.