Episode: #4 23/09/2006
Presenter: Kim Syrus

Propagating your own plants is not only a cheap way to fill in the gaps but also provides a great sense of satisfaction and achievement.

Impatiens are an easy plant to begin. Trim off a flowering piece around 10cm long. Choose one with a node as this is where the roots will develop. Cutback the leaves, dip into a rooting powder and simply push the cutting straight into a potting mix filled container. Add a few others, and water in with a seaweed based extract. Leave in a shaded spot and water regularly. The cutting will root within 3 to 4 weeks and become a brand new plant.

Pelargonium?s are also so easy to grow. After three weeks the roots will being to grow and then leave them for another month and they will be ready for planting out.

The fashionable Dracaena?s are so easy to propagate. Simply cut the top and a length of stem off an existing plant. It looks dramatic but the remaining stump will heal over and begin to re-shoot into a new top in no time. The cut piece can be left to dry off for a couple of weeks before being either planted in a single pot or being pushed in with a number of others for something really funky.

If you have an overgrown plant in a basket, now is the ideal time to separate it into lots of fabulous plants!

Sword ferns, for example, are practically indestructible, so don?t worry about how brutal you are in carving it up. Use a spade or maybe something else cut the plant up into as many sections as you like. As long as it has roots, it will grow. Now trim back the top, cut, or twist, and plant.

Put the biggest piece back into the original hanging basket and fill with new potting mix, feed and water. The other pieces can be potted up for the garden or even the school fete!

It feels good to create your own home grown plants. No matter what colour your thumb is, you will have great success with getting your plants up and growing.

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