There are many reasons to propagate plants, such as taking plant cuttings. Some of the reasons are.

• Cost: It is cheaper to propagate a few plants from what you already have than to purchase new ones.

• Plant life expectancy: Many perennial plants live for a few years and then die. Taking cuttings from those plants extends the species living in your garden.

• Multiplying the breed: If you have only one type of a specific plant in your garden, you can take cuttings from the mother plant and multiply the breed.

• The good feelings: One of the greatest feelings as a gardener or hobbyist is to see a plant develop from seed or cut into a beautiful spender from the likes of your doings. Those are only some of the reasons why it’s good to propagate plants.

Propagating plants is not complex. Many plants can be propagated simply in your home or garden with no effort.

I’ll jot down what works best for me as a hobbyist gardener living in London, UK. Through the years, I’ve experimented with propagating various plant types. At first, many of my cuttings would not root; they’d dry up. I learned that when cutting, it's best to take a cut from a new growth section from the mother plant. Cut a green and soft stem, which has not yet developed into a woody stem. Since doing that, 99% of my cuttings have always roots. Many plants will root by inserting the cutting in moist compost or a water container. Dipping the cuttings in hormone rooting power makes the rooting process much faster.

The process

• Start by using a clean plant-cutting tool to collect your cuttings.

• Take cuttings that are green, soft, or not mature yet.

• New growth shoots are best. Here in London, I noticed the plants pop out new growth twice yearly, once after the winter, around April May, and later in the year, around July or August.

• Remove leaves and stems from the bottom of the cuttings. You want to create a clean stem to stick into the compost.

• Wet the cuttings, then dip them in some rooting powder.

• Pop them in the compost, then compress them around the base, making them slightly tight.

• Pour some water onto your new potted cuttings.

• Let it sit for about three weeks in a nice warm spot, away from direct sun.

One important thing is to make sure the compost is moist/wet all the time. In about three weeks, you’ll have some nice cuttings from your mother plants ready to re-pot or spread out in your garden or indoors.

In the photo above, those cuttings were taken from a daisy mother plant. After three weeks, they’ve popped out nice, fresh, healthy roots ready to be re-potted or planted in the garden.

Check out my video, which illustrates how I propagate plants here in London, UK.

That’s it, nothing much to it.

Happy propagating.