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asarumgreenpanda

Propagation, the other dead-of-winter hobby

In winter, I want more and more houseplants around me, and I love propagating them, anyway. Cuttings are easier to root when it's warmer (not that that stops me from rooting them in winter, sigh), but hybridizing winter-blooming houseplants is a fun hobby. Back when I really did not understand the limited square footage of my condo, I started hybridizing my Hippeastrum (often sold labeled "Amaryllis"). One of my three-year-old seedlings is blooming for the first time--opened yesterday.

It's not a breeding breakthrough in any way; it has a very similar color to its pod parent, H. 'Exotica' and the shape of its flowers is greatly inferior to 'Exotica.' Still, it's nice to have around, a cheery and welcome bit of color in this snowstorm we're having here.

What kind of propagation experiments do you do to get through winter?

Amanda

Comments (32)

  • Amanda (asarumgreenpanda, z6MA)
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Hippeastrum often make oh-wow-an-awful-lot of seeds per cross, so one ends up with a lot of pots of a lot of seedlings each. They're not small bulbs. When I made these crosses, I had mid-winter optimism (/delusion?) about my space limitations. Just a few of them:

    This post was edited by asarumgreenpanda on Fri, Feb 8, 13 at 13:58

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    11 years ago

    Very pretty! Your Begonia looks awesome too!

    I've been propagating cane Begonias, wax Begonias, Tradescantia zebrina and pallida, some NOID succulent leaves.

    Your post inspired me to scrape up enough "dirt" to do some little Portulacaria branches, and more Thanksgiving cactus chunks today. Those things are really going nuts with the aerial roots.

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    11 years ago

    Here's a pic of "your" inspirations!

  • Amanda (asarumgreenpanda, z6MA)
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Those look great, Purple!

    I'm propagating cane begonias right now, too, as well as a few aroids. I put a piece of my favorite Anthurium into s/h a few days ago to see how it does. And last night I found these tiny Gasteria pups from a propagation experiment I started at least a year and a half ago. They're about 1/8-1/4'' large. One thing about Gasteria: they only do things on their own schedule. The leaf sat there for well over a year, apparently doing nothing.

    Amanda

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    11 years ago

    Those are the cutest little things! Your story (and pic) is a vote of confidence for all of those still-kinda-green-but-nothing's-happening prop experiments out there.

    This new baby Sans definitely thinks it's propagation season. Went to water it yesterday and the flimsy little pot had this giant bulge on the side. Cut it off and found this giant pup.

  • tommyr_gw Zone 6
    11 years ago

    I'm guilty of overdoing winter propagation too. AVs, tropical Sundews, Nepenthes. I keep doing it even though I'm really running out of room for them all. And seed starting time is coming up next month on TOP of it!

  • Amanda (asarumgreenpanda, z6MA)
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Purple, I mean it as a compliment when I say your particular variety of Sans should be called something like S. tri. 'Bionica.' That type you have is bionic! Obviously your care for it and abilities have a lot to do with its vigor, but, still... Please keep us posted on the progress of that pup. It looks HUGE. What a cool picture.

    Tommyr, how do you propagate tropical sundews? AVs are so much fun to propagate. I love those tiny new rosettes.

    When I had more of a yard, I got into trouble with seed starting. The yard in my head grew and grew and grew, in size, as winter went on. I started more seeds than I had room to plant, most years. (Now that I truly only have 4 tiny, bathtub-sized spaces outdoors, my seed-starting is a little more under control.) This is not to say you're doing what I did, just that I think I might know what you mean about seed starting on top of it all. :)

    Amanda

  • FrugalFanny
    11 years ago

    Funny, I got on this forum just now specifically to start a thread about something very similar: how winter encourages us to celebrate even the teeniest triumphs ie. new growth, and to share our new additions that have been brought about by our need for ever more green around us during these dark and chilly months. Another thing I was going to include was "what have you and your plants been up to?". I've been doing a lot of repotting lately. Normally this is when I do the majority of my propagating, but finally I have run almost completely out of room! So repotting it is.

  • tommyr_gw Zone 6
    11 years ago

    Amanda,
    I start tropical Sundews by either leaf cuttings or in the case of pygmy sundews, gemmae which are brooding bodies that form in the fall. Fun plants!

  • rina_Ontario,Canada 5a
    11 years ago

    Amanda, that gasteria pupping leaf is great, I didn't know you can start them from leaves.

    I stuck a piece of horseradish into a pot few weeks ago, and here it is, starting to grow. Will be ready for the garden, just in time.

    Rina

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    11 years ago

    Wow that's cool, Rina, it's sprouting in so many different places!

  • rina_Ontario,Canada 5a
    11 years ago

    Rooting some cuttings from Parrot's beak plant (Impatient niamniamensis, not Lotus vine) in water...and one cutting decided to bloom:

    Rina

  • petrushka (7b)
    11 years ago

    wow! that's pretty spectacular. i've never seen anything like these 'elves shoes'.
    mine are bo-o-ring: polipodium seeded into my alocasia polly and took over , so i finally dug up the tubers and separated sev baby rabbit's feet that were just starting. from 1" to 1/8" with a tiniest of curls just beginning.

  • petrushka (7b)
    11 years ago

    and here's the alocasia tubers: 2 babies with 1 leaf only, one even with bulbil still attached - cute. have to plant them tomorrow, have to go get some supplies...

  • Amanda (asarumgreenpanda, z6MA)
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    The sundews sound very cool.

    Rina, that's a great idea, to sprout horseradish. Yours looks very happy. You probably know this, but I feel I need to say, as someone who inherited a garden full of horseradish, that it can be invasive if you grow it in the ground. It's very vigorous, and it will grow from any tiny bit of root left in the soil. I was digging out two-foot-long roots for the whole time I had that garden. (It's great in containers.)

    I love the parrot's beak. I don't think I've seen that before. How beautiful.

    Petrushka, I wouldn't call those plants boring. The polipodium is as cute as the alocasia.

    FrugalFanny, sometimes I "solve" my space issues by putting cuttings into the same pot with the original plant. I get my propagation fix, and also a fuller plant. Repotting is good too.

    Amanda

  • rina_Ontario,Canada 5a
    11 years ago

    Amanda

    I read that about horseradish - never grew one in the garden yet. I have now much bigger garden & debating growing it in pot v. in ground.
    Would it need deep container?
    Didn't expect much of it, it was just short piece left in the fridge, getting too wrinkled, I stuck it in leftover soil in the pot I forgot to empty in fall.

    Petrushka,
    I wish I protected my alocasia tuber better, it unfortunately, froze 2yrs ago. I like the plant a lot.
    Love the 'elves shoes' nickname...

    Here is datura (Angel's trumpet - Brugmansia); new growth from the cutting:

    Rina

    This post was edited by rina_ on Thu, Feb 14, 13 at 2:33

  • Amanda (asarumgreenpanda, z6MA)
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Hi, Rina,

    The datura is very cute.

    Horseradish would probably like the biggest pot you can give it, but I bet it would thrive in a smaller, shallower pot, too. In my experience, it will grow happily under a variety of conditions. Please keep us updated on yours.

    Amanda

  • petrushka (7b)
    11 years ago

    i loved the horseradish idea: have a chunk in the fridge.
    found this: To produce a crop of blanched, forced leaves, place some roots with the crowns in moist soil in a warm, dark location. Harvest the resulting tender, sweet, white leaves when they are 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 inches) long, usually in 2 to 3 weeks.
    after that i can put it outside in the pot .
    i already stuck some sprouting garlic cloves outside on the balcony too - for garlic greens. apparently good in salads. i love chinese garlic chives, may be it's similar.

  • rina_Ontario,Canada 5a
    11 years ago

    petrushka

    Is that horseradish leaves you are talking about or any root veggies?

    Here is rosemary grown from seed, started exactly 1yr ago (my son started them in his apartment under the lights-now they are too big for his place-5 pots, very vigorous), waiting to be planted outside.

    Rina

    This post was edited by rina_ on Mon, Feb 25, 13 at 18:03

  • petrushka (7b)
    11 years ago

    yah, i read that about horseradish: forcing and bleaching the leaves, apparently they are sweeter when white. but i suppose you can use beets shoots too, may be even turnip greens, especially japanese or white turnips. but i won't happen to have those in my fridge for sprouting. i like spicy greens, horseradish should be similar to mustard greens. they said it was very common in central europe, like in middle ages , 'cause horseradish sprouts very early and in abundance. for me that's just an exotic experiment :).

  • rina_Ontario,Canada 5a
    11 years ago

    I wonder if this cutting will be a full-grown shrub one day...it is a small branch of lilac Miss Kim - in the water, and it even had few very tiny flowers (I cut them off to encourage roots/leaves).
    Will see what happens - I think it would have rooted just the same in soil. Just an experiment (or desperately waiting for spring).
    Rina

    This post was edited by rina_ on Tue, Feb 19, 13 at 15:48

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    11 years ago

    Wax Begonia pieces surviving with propagated Philo stem.

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    11 years ago

    All winter long I've been breaking off the long pieces of this Tradescantia pallida and sticking them back in the soil. I don't know why I have this compulsion to have a hanging basket completely covered/crowded with dangling pieces this summer. The patches in the yard should be enough.

  • rina_Ontario,Canada 5a
    11 years ago

    Update on horseradish - more than doubled in size in 3weeks:

  • rina_Ontario,Canada 5a
    11 years ago

    Figs are starting to leaf-out too:

  • rina_Ontario,Canada 5a
    11 years ago

    New growth on olive:

  • petrushka (7b)
    11 years ago

    how-whee! i stuck my horseradish in perlite to rehydrate, am envious of those green shoots! am planning to bleach mine like escarole...

  • Amanda (asarumgreenpanda, z6MA)
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    The horseradish, fig and olive look great, Rina. How's the Miss Kim cutting doing? Do you usually root lilacs in soil? I've tried that but never had success. I'm impressed by rosemary from seed, too; wow.

    Petrushka, yours will explode in growth too, I'm sure; that plant is genetically programmed for mind-boggling vigor. :) I love the idea of blanching it. Might try that--thanks for the information.

    Purple, I, too, am compelled to make my hanging plants bushier and bushier. Maybe one day I'll be able to grow one that's long. Yours is very pretty.

    Amanda

  • rina_Ontario,Canada 5a
    11 years ago

    Petrushka

    I am thinking about your bleaching suggestion too - but the leaves are so nice, fresh green color! - maybe I try just half of them.

    Amanda

    I never tried rooting lilac before, I had few cuttings from trimming Miss Kim, and stuck them in the water. It is still alive, will plant it in the soil maybe in couple of weeks. Will see if it survives.

    Here is passion flower growing from cutting (it was started in water, planted in pot just after New Year). It has grown a lot.
    Rina

  • petrushka (7b)
    11 years ago

    just wanted to show you the mother polypodium plant (rabbits foot) that grew from spore in one of my orchids, about 6-7 years back. it sheds enormous amount of spoors. i had to wash it in the shower in hopes of knocking them off.

  • petrushka (7b)
    11 years ago

    so it seeded a few years back onto my alocasia amazonica polly - and i had a fernery going. so finally it looked to choke polly good and i had to separate them. i wound up with 3 more fern plants, one a tiny one i posted before and 2 more larger ones. none of them are sporing yet. so this pic is of mother in the back and 2 new plants left and center. if i put them outside on the balcony - they just explode, so i am not sure i want to do that - have very limited space ...they are native to florida i think, and grow like crazy as a ground cover there. also in hawaii. but they are quite easy to maintain indoors. i had no luck with any other ferns.

  • delreytropical
    11 years ago

    This is such a great thread!!! Love seeing all of these, will have to post some of my pictures too.

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