Runners make easy work of propagating houseplants

MARGARET C. CROOKS, GANNETT NEWS SERVICE

Originally published June 2

One of the easiest means to propagate your houseplants is from runners. Spider plant, some ferns and strawberry-geranium, which is neither a strawberry nor a geranium, make babies at the ends of long runners. It is a simple matter to fill a small pot with peatlite mix, moisten it, then pin down the baby plant with a hair pin. Once it establishes roots, cut the stem from the mother plant.

Plants that were overwintered should be propagated now. Geraniums and fuchsia, for example, are propagated from tip cuttings. Take cuttings 3 to 4 inches long, remove lower leaves and stick in peatlite mix. Take care that the medium for the geraniums is well drained. Cuttings will rot in soggy medium.

Hybrid geraniums are grown from seed. The sturdy seedlings will germinate in five days and grow rapidly. They should be transplanted to 2 1/4-inch pots as soon as they are large enough to handle. Geranium and fuchsia cuttings and hybrid geraniums prefer a temperature between 70 and 80 degrees. Bottom heat will speed rooting and germination.

Geraniums enjoy sun, but keep the fuchsia in bright, indirect light.

Both Christmas and Thanksgiving cactus, as well as other epiphytic cactus (plants that grow on other plants, but do not root into them), are a cinch to propagate, but there is one secret to success in propagating any succulent cuttings. They must be allowed to callus. This simply means taking the cuttings, then leaving them on the shelf for about a week before sticking them.

Break off tips with three or four sections. After callusing, stick the cuttings in barely moist peatlite mix. The base section should be about half buried in the medium.

Epiphytic succulents that are not jointed can be propagated from stem cuttings. Cut a stem into 3-inch sections and stick after callusing. Mark which way is up on the sections as you cut the stems in pieces.

Bromeliads are propagated by division. Once the main cup has flowered, it will not bloom again. When pups are well rooted, unpot the plant and break or cut away the pups and pot separately. Incidentally, bromeliads grown as houseplants should not be watered by keeping water in the cups. This is an invitation to bacteria. Water the medium as you do most houseplants.

African violets are propagated either by division or from leaf cuttings. Simply stick the leaf stem up to the base of the leaf, keep barely moist and in a few weeks, one or more baby plants will begin to grow at the base of the mother leaf. When they are large enough to handle, pot them individually.

Take care not to overpot your African violets or to overwater them. Wilting usually is caused by too much water rather than lack thereof. Allow the medium to dry between waterings.

If your plants have outgrown your house and are beautiful and pest-free, you might want to donate them to a public building. My Norfolk Island pine is on the way to the local library, which has a big, sunny indoor atrium.

Margaret C. Crooks is a horticulturist and writer. Only questions of general interest will be answered. Readers can e-mail her at pcrooks@greenvillenc.com. She is past president of Garden Writers of America. Readers can send garden problems to her in care of the Asbury Park Press, 3601 Highway 66, Neptune, Box 1550, NJ 07754-1551.

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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