Home Propagation of Garden and Landscape Plants

Abstract

Plant pieces severed from a parent plant and rooted to form new plants are called cuttings. New plants formed from cuttings have the same characteristics as the parent plant. Rooting cuttings at home is simple and inexpensive and requires little labor and equipment. Layering is a method of propagating new plants when seeding, cutting, grafting and other methods are impractical or ineffective. It is the rooting of a new plant while the stem is still attached to the parent plant. One of the most important methods for propagating plants at home, however, is crown division. Herbaceous plants such as chrysanthemum, day lily, peony and iris can be divided by this method.