~Written by Nan Sterman

Years ago, a neighbor introduced herself to me as "the plant pincher." I must have looked surprised because she explained that whenever she saw a plant she liked, she pinched a piece and took it home to try to root it. And, she continued, would I mind if she pinched some of my plants.

She assumed I was surprised to hear that plants could be rooted from pieces. On the contrary, I was surprised to learn I wasn't the only plant pincher in the neighborhood!

My friend pinched because her budget was limited and her property large. I pinch hard-to-find plants in friends' gardens (with their permission of course).

Rooting plants from cuttings is surprisingly straightforward. Not everything is easy to start, but once you understand the basics, try your hand at anything.

Among the easiest are evergreen, herbaceous perennials in the mint family. That includes sages (Salvia), mints (Mentha), Plectranthus, anise hyssop (Agastache), and others. Choose plants with upright stems and prominent "nodes" (joints) along the stems.

How Stem Cuttings Work
Plants have four main parts – stems, leaves, flowers, and roots. Roots take water from the ground and send it up through stems into flowers and leaves. Leaves photosynthesize to make food, which is dispersed through stems into flowers and roots.

When you make a stem cutting, you eliminate the roots that replenish water lost into the air during photosynthesis (it's a bit like the water vapor you exhale as you breathe). Eventually, leaves wilt, and branches dry out. With cuttings, the goal is to prevent wilting by keeping soil and air moist while new roots form at the nodes.

How do roots form at nodes? Plant hormones "tell" a plant where to grow; at branch tips to grow longer branches, at root tips to expand roots, at nodes when stems are cut and treated just right. That's our goal.

Supplies:

• Plants not in flower. Many plants root best just after flowering.
  
• Rooting hormone, powder or liquid, or willow water (see below)
  
• Lightweight plastic bags like supermarket vegetable bags.
  
• Potting mix. Use fresh Black Gold Cactus Mix or Natural and Organic Potting Mix half and half with Black Gold Perlite or Black Gold sand (not playground sand).
  
• Pots soaked 30 minutes in a solution of one part bleach to nine parts water.
  
• Plant labels soaked with pots
  
• Pencil
  
• Three chopsticks per pot
  
• Water
  
• Pruning shears
  
• Cement mixing tray or dish tub to work in
• Waterproof gloves

How to:

1. Make a label. Record plant name, the date, and source of cuttings.
   
2. Dampen potting soil and fill pots to the brim. Insert labels
   
3. Make as many cuttings as you can, each about four inches long and including several nodes.
   
4. Remove all but the top most pair of leaves to limit water loss but continue photosynthesis.
   
5. Dip cutting ends in rooting hormone – liquid, powder (wear gloves and follow label directions) -- or soak for an hour in willow water.
   
6. Poke a hole in the center of the potting soil, and place several cuttings into the hole.
7. Crowded cuttings seem to root better. Set cuttings so leaves are exposed while most nodes are in the potting mix.
   
8. Firm soil around cuttings.
   
9. Space chopsticks around the inside perimeter of the pot, set high, then cover them loosely with the plastic bag. Keep the plastic from touching the cuttings.
   
10. Poke a hole in the top of the bag for a little air circulation
    
11. Place the pot in a well-lit spot, out of direct sunlight. Under eaves or in the shade of a tree are good choices.

After a few weeks, tug gently on the cuttings to see if they resist – that's what happens when roots start to form. Continue to monitor the cuttings, keeping soil damp but not wet. If soil dries, set the pot in a few inches of water and allow it to soak up. Don't water from above.

When cuttings are clearly rooted – or when roots come out the bottom of the pot – gently turn the pot over and separate the new little plants. Pot each plant individually.

Voila! Success!

Some Things to Know:

• New leaves don't necessarily indicate rooting,
  
• Rooting can take weeks to months.
  
• If a cutting turns black, it is dead.
  
• Not all plants root at the same time of year. If cuttings fail at first, try again in a few months, and then again a few months later.

Willow Water

Willows contain rooting hormones that are easy to extract and use.

Supplies:

• Willow branch cuttings, each no thicker than a pencil, 2" long, and stripped of leaves. Enough to make 2 cups.
  
• Half gallon of water
  
• Container with a lid and a label.
  

How to:

1. Place willow cuttings in the container
   
2. Boil water and pour over willow.
   
3. Allow to steep overnight, then drain.
   
4. Store willow water in the refrigerator for up to two months.

Last November, I did 4 cuttings from a twig that came from a tree whose fruit I fell in love with. We were on a trip at the time so the twig sat in a damp paper towel for a week before I could pot it up. If I had potted them right away, all four would likely have rooted. The one cutting that took is 6 months old in the photo.

Check out last month's article "Sneak A Peak" By Nan Sterman

About Nan Sterman

I am delighted to be contributing to Sungro’s website! Writing about plants and gardens, talking about them, teaching about them, creating gardens are my absolutely most favorite things to do. Fortunately for me, that’s my profession!

I grew up gardening. Among my earliest memories is the sweet scent of sweet pea flowers that surrounded my childhood home in Los Angeles. Equally memorable was the musty tomato forest my grandfather planted each spring behind the garage. As a college student in the 1970s, I was in the first wave of the sustainability movement that arose from the birth of Earthday. That was the first world-wide wake-up call about the limits of our natural resources.

Outdoors, I was in charge of the edible landscape, the vegetable garden, the chickens, rabbits, and compost. Many lessons from those days became permanent features in my life. I’ve made a vegetable garden in every place I’ve lived. I composting and recycle everything. I am notoriously frugal when it comes to using energy and even more so about water. In fact, my specialty is low water gardens, but I’ll get to that in a moment.

After my botany degree, I earned a Masters in marine biology at UC Santa Barbara and another in educational design at San Diego State University. For a decade I worked as an education and training consultant for companies like Union Bank and Century 21 Real Estate and organizations like the San Diego Zoo and Scripps Aquarium. In the early dot.com years, I designed educational software.

When I started testing the first generation of garden design software, the editor of National Gardening Magazine (yes, it was a magazine once) invited me to write up my findings. Soon, I was garden editor of San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles Magazine. It was the end of one career and the beginning of the next. Today, I write for Sunset, the Los Angeles Times, San Diego Union Tribune, Organic Gardening, and etc.

My first solo book, California Gardener’s Guide vII was published in 2007 and in early 2010, Waterwise Plants for Southwest Gardens will be released. I have a TV show called A Growing Passion and am a regular guest on the morning talk show on San Diego’s Public Radio station. I speak, teach, and lecture to garden clubs and at garden shows from Albuquerque to Seattle, though most of my work is in Southern California. At the same time, I consult with water districts, public agencies, and the Water Conservation Garden at Cuyamaca College in southeast San Diego County.

While many people promote low water gardening as a way to save water, I take a broader perspective. Low water plants are sustainable plants. Why? In addition to being low water, they need little if any fertilizers and have few pests so they don’t need to be sprayed or treated. Because they grow slowly, they seldom need pruning. Therefore, they contribute very little to the mountains of yard waste that are trucked and processed with fossil fuels while releasing greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. How much “greener” can you get?

Somewhere along the way, I started designing gardens. I love to dig in other people’s dirt! My own garden is “slightly controlled chaos.” My 2/3-acre property includes beds of gorgeous perennials, shrubs, trees, and succulents, all adapted to growing with little water. I have a large vegetable garden, more than 20 fruiting trees and shrubs, an herb garden (couldn’t live without fresh herbs!) a brand new meadow, and a corner devoted entirely to California natives.

My goal with this column is to write about things that interest you. Please, email me your questions, comments, and photos of your garden. Let’s see what we can discover about gardening, together!

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