Cuttings – Grow Plants the Easy Way!
(Tulsi Growing Roots)
Have you ever tried to propagate plants from cuttings? It’s a fun and rewarding way to acquire new plants and increase the biodiversity in your garden or yard. All you need are some sharp scissors or a knife, access to a plant that you’d like to grow, and water or soil. It’s that easy!
Cuttings are an affordable way to propagate new plants. When you grow from cuttings, you’re making a clone of the parent or mother plant. Your new plant will be genetically identical to the parent plant, so it’s important to take your cuttings from healthy plants with abundant foliage.
Plants that take well to cuttings include herbs like Lavender, Rosemary, Mints, Lemon Balm, and Basil, perennial plants like Salvia, Plectranthus, Scented Pelargoniums (more commonly known as Geraniums), and flowers like Jasmine, Rose, and Fushcia.
(Mint Chocolate Scented Pelargonium)
When I make a cutting, I cut off a piece of the stem of the plant, just below a leaf node. A node is the area on the stem where leaves and aerial roots emerge. It’s a good idea to take at least 3 to 5 cuttings of a plant, because some of them won’t take. I make my cuts at an angle and usually cut at least 5 inches of stem. I remove the lower leaves and leave a few leaves on at the top of the stem for photosynthesis.
Some plants, like Mint and Basil, I place in water, out of direct sun. They root very quickly. Once the roots are about 1 to 2 inches, I plant them in soil.
Other plant cuttings like Salvia or Lavender, I put directly in a pot of soil and place the pot in indirect light. These seem to root more slowly and prefer to start in soil.
Many people dip the tip of their cutting stem in rooting hormone. I don’t, but I have tried honey as an alternative. You can plant a few different cuttings in the same pot, but make sure the leaves don’t touch. Once the roots are healthy enough, you can transplant your new plants in your yard or garden or continue to grow them in pots.
If you have a rose you particularly love, a culinary or medicinal herb you’d like to grow, or a plant that you want more of, cuttings are a fun project! Right now, I have cuttings of Lavender, Pelargonium, Night Blooming Jasmine, and Horehound just starting to grow. I can’t wait to include them in my garden and watch them flourish.
Josh was born and raised in Santa Barbara, where his passion and curiosity for the environment began and has continued to grow. During his undergraduate studies, Josh pursued this interest at the University of California at Santa Cruz, receiving a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Studies.
Melissa Dodos developed her passion for creative reuse as a mother of four and elementary educator over the past 25 years. She loves to inspire creativity by connecting people with resources and ideas.
Veronica grew up in San Diego and spent four years in San Luis Obispo studying Animal Science at Cal Poly. As an undergrad she learned lots about livestock, agriculture, and wildlife.
Stephanie began her journey as an educator over twenty years ago working as a preschool teacher in Washington state for a cooperative preschool program affiliated with Whatcom Community College. She loved observing the wonder and curiosity of the children and bringing them out into nature to explore the natural world. She continued her love for learning and got her teaching license and then her Montessori certification and worked as an elementary teacher in Tribal, Public, and Montessori schools. She collaborated to create a school garden and her students loved it so much that it became a special place where they could garden, read, explore, play, and it provided a safe sanctuary for students to calm down and reset when they were having difficult moments.
Morgan’s mermaid soul is always seeking adventure—swimming a relay across the Santa Barbara Channel and taking the first photo of a newborn orca off Anacapa Island being standout experiences close to home.
Lindsay Johnson
