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Thursday, November 29, 2012

New Geranium Plants From Cuttings

Do you ever get sticker shock going to your garden center in the Spring to buy your garden flowers?
I do. One of my favorite flowers is geraniums. I bought them for my hanging baskets during my first year of gardening. After paying full retail prices, I decided to find a less expensive, but same quality, option.

I taught myself how to use geranium cuttings from existing plants to grow new plants. I am now on my fifth generation of plants.

Here's how to do it !

Here is a dug up and repotted, 1 full season old, geranium brought indoors for the winter. I haven't trimmed off the dead leaves yet. My priority was to get it indoors before the first hard frost. I have about 20, full-sized plants spending the winter near upstairs windows.
Take the plant, rotate it around, and look or a good "branch" or stem. I look for the one's that are sticking out to the side. I get to make a new plant and shape the larger plant at the same time.
Cut the stem right above the "v". Try to make a sharp,  even, cut.
The cut is made! You want to plant the cutting soon after so have your pot with soil ready.
Now get yourself a small green pot and fill it with garden soil. I use green pots that other people throw out in the trash. The garden soil should be moist but have no water freely dripping from it.
Stick your finger in the soil and make a hole about 2" deep.
Place the cutting in the hole. Make sure you keep small leaves exposed if the are sticking out of the stem.
Tamp the soil around the stem so the cutting is firmly placed in the soil.
And here it is ! Don't worry about making it perfectly upright. Nature will take care of itself.
Here are some previous transplanted cuttings. See how their new, rich, green leaves are growing in nicely?

These are about 2 months old. I have about 2 dozen cuttings growing,
This one is ready to be re-potted. The roots are showing. It must be happy.

Follow this method and you can save a lot of money making your own geraniums from cuttings!

3 comments:

  1. I always thought you had to add some kind of root hormone to do that! Does it work for other kinds of flowers?

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    Replies
    1. I read an article concerning geraniums about using a root hormone liquid. I said, "what the heck" and tried without it. It worked so I never went back. I will post additional articles in the future about propagating other plants as I do them.

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  2. Are such cuttings possible for Indian climate (I am from Kolkata, West Bengal)? I don't think so.

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