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Polk County Master Gardeners
News Articles
Plant Propagation
A rewarding benefit of gardening is the frequent opportunity to share
favorite plants with others. The next time you find yourself thinning flower
beds don't throw the surplus away. Make a gift of plants to your neighbors,
friends and family! Many plants reproduce themselves with very little effort
including some of the most beautiful ornamentals.
Reproducing plants with spores, splicing, leaf cuttings, cross-pollination,
air layering and offsets are not for the average gardener. Easier methods are
layering, root separation, and division. These reproductive processes in plants,
called propagation, help to maintain existing species, can be used by skilled
horticulturists to create new cultivars and is often needed to regenerate
established plants. For example, irises and day lilies, common to most gardens,
should be divided every 3-5 years to achieve better blooms.
The two primary types of propagation in the plant world are sexual and
asexual. Sexual reproduction exclusively involves the flowers. They rely
primarily on wind, bees and other types of insects for pollination. Whereas,
asexual reproduction involves taking other parts of parent plants to regenerate
new plants. This may include leaves, stems or root portions. For example,
separation is a term used to describe the method of creating new plants from
multiple bulbs and corms like tulips and narcissus. Dig up the root clumps after
the foliage withers, separate and replant.
Crocus and gladiolus are corms. After leaves wither, dig up and dry in
indirect light for 2-3 weeks. Then, carefully separate the new corms that grow
on the old corms, dust with fungicide and store in a cool place until planting
time. Plant crocus in the fall and gladiolus in the spring.
Iris plants spread through thick underground stems called rhizomes. They are
easily divided. When planted early in the fall, expect a few blooms in the
spring from the larger transplants. Others will take 2-3 years to get
established.
Perennial dahlias and begonias reproduce through a tuberous root system that
may also be divided. Spring daffodils are seldom thinned out and will
continue to bloom and spread for years. Nonetheless, dividing them every five
years increases the quality of blooming. The same is true with most hyacinth,
particularly the grape variety.
Layering is simply pulling the tips of limbs on ornamental plants down and
securing them in dirt or growing medium so roots can start. Once tips show
healthy growth, remove them, including the new roots, and replant. Tip layering
( inserting only the plant tips into a 3-4 inch hole in the ground and covering)
is used to reproduce black raspberries, and trailing blackberries. Simple
layering, where limbs go down into the ground and back out about 6-12 inches, is
used for forsythia, rhododendron and honeysuckle type plants. Finally, compound
layering works well where a long flexible stem is wound in and out of the
growing medium. This method is suggested for English Ivy, heart-leaf
philodendron and pothos.
By Gerald L. Wood
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