I’ve been propagating houseplants and taking softwood cuttings. November is a good time for softwood cuttings, and it’s nice to do a bit of houseplant propagation as the nights draw in.

Folklore has it that after a mast year a cold winter is coming and so just in case I’ve got some cuttings from a few plants I hope to have more of next year. I’ve taken a few softwood cuttings including sage, salvia and verbena. I’ve also potted on a few fairly easy to propagate houseplants, including:

• Ficus aka Weeping fig or Fiscus benjamina
• Jade, aka money plant, aka Crassula ovata
• Chinese money plant (Pilea peperomioides)
• Swiss Cheese plant (Monstera)
• Spider plant (Ziggy Stardust)

Potting on ficus cuttings

These shoots are from a variegated Ficus benjamina, a houseplant we were given as a housewarming gift. I cut the tops of the plants off and put them in a vase, and they formed roots after sitting in water for a few weeks.

I potted them up into our marvellous homemade compost.

Also in the greenhouse are some cuttings from the verbena – side shoots with strong growth that didn’t have flowers, along with a few snips from the salvia amethyst. Let’s see how they fare this winter…

Seven Sisters Propagation Station

Indoors, there’s a sunny windowsill which is often full of plants. I notice that the ‘Seven Sisters Station’ bus sign we have by the windowsill is a good name for a propagation station, although I think there may be more than seven sisters there right now.

Current residents at the Seven Sisters Propagation Station… (from left)- the ash seedling is a little bonsai experiment, the Chinese money plant (Pilea peperomioides) is a descendant from a parent plant that’s had many offspring, and next to that is a recently potted up cutting of Swiss Cheese plant (Monstera).

In the middle of the window ledge is a large spider plant, a jade plant, and a spider wort (Tradescantia).

The spider plant is the parent of Ziggy, the spider plant from Mars. Spider plants are great, they are so easy to grow and propagate, and they are suitable for pun based plant names which make fun / silly prizes for the Three Swans Pop quiz Bowie round.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a pic of the spider plant from Mars, so here’s a terrible photo of an inept doodle to give you the basic idea. 🙂

Further along the windowsill of the Seven Sisters (Propagation) Station are three little ‘string of hearts’ pots, each with a couple of the ariel root balls from the parent plant. These little blobs, hopefully, will put out roots and form new plants, to make more lovely heart strings.

Next to them are cuttings from another ‘money plant’ – a couple of jade cuttings, recently transplanted and hopefully ready to settle into the compost.

Soon the baby bonsai ash (Ashleen) will go to a bigger pot in the garden, to join the other ash saplings in a little group that will be planted out somewhere sometime.

That will leave seven sisters on the window ledge of propagation station

• Ficus aka Weeping fig or Fiscus benjamina
• Jade, aka money plant, aka Crassula ovata
• Chinese money plant (Pilea peperomioides)
• String of hearts (Ceropegia woodii)
• Spiderwort (tradescantia)
• Swiss Cheese plant (Monstera)
• Spider plant (Ziggy Stardust)

With a windowsill, a few pots, compost and a bit of time, it’s fairly easy to propagate houseplants.

I find it it can be a lot of fun – especially in the darker months when outdoor gardening is less appealing. And I’ll have more little trees to give away next year. 🙂

Share and enjoy!

J x