An Easy Way to Multiply Many of Your Garden Plants

A while ago, I wanted to multiply a lot of my plants but didn’t want to go to the hassle of propagating cuttings in pots. I’d have to buy more potting soil, fill containers with soil, plant the cuttings, keep the pots watered and finally when the cuttings root, adjust them to a sunnier position, then plant. Lots of work.

So I decided to experiment with my plants by taking cuttings and propagating them right next to the mother plant. Then all I’d have to do is make sure they don’t dry out, which sometimes requires a daily watering, depending on how warm it gets.

I’m excited to tell you that most of these cuttings have rooted! All it took was for me to take a walk around the yard looking for plants that had enough growth to take cuttings. If so, I’d take a cutting, strip off the bottom leaves and stick the cutting into the soil next to the mother plant, then be sure the soil didn’t dry out. It was extremely easy and fun to watch for results. I’ve included photos below with notes.

Pepper plant (not sure which) momma with baby

Basil Plant with babies. My basil isnt doing that well outdoors. We had a 3-day heatwave where temps reached 107 degrees (Western Washington), which the basil and peppers seemed to love, but then we cooled down to 70 degree days with 50 degree nights and I don’t think they like the cooler weather.

I had more photos to share but they didn’t want to upload, maybe it was too much for this post, so I will tell you about the rest of the successful propagations done in the same way.

I was surprised it worked on Dahlia and Coreopsis!

Mini and regular roses now have babies.

I took sucker cuttings from tomato plants and it worked. If you don’t know what a sucker is on a tomato, it is a branch that grows in between a leaf and a stem.

It has also worked on all of my herbs… sage, lemon thyme, garden thyme, oregano, other lavenders and more. I didn’t try cilantro because I planted seeds everywhere and now have plants everywhere (I love cilantro and wanted to be sure I had enough this year since I didn’t have enough last year).

I took cuttings from my dad’s butterfly bush and stuck them in the ground and they’ve taken root!

The point is that if you want to increase your plants, you can do so much easier than potting up cuttings, or even rooting in water, which is easy on some plants but then you still have to adjust them to soil and the weather. I’m finding this method works on most of my plants, and if I get new ones, I’ll try it with those too. Another great thing about it is that the plant babies are already adjusted to the sun levels. All I have to do now is transplant them to other areas I want them, then water them in really well.

Do you have any plant propagation tips you’d like to share? Or other gardening tips? How’s your garden growing?

I’d love to hear from you.

Warmly, Monica

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