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Early summer is the season when our new plant acquisitions sink their roots into the garden.
This tiny cutting from an ornamental sweet potato vine grew roots as it sat in a little vase of water by my kitchen sink. Did you notice how the roots are curled into a spiral?
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You may notice that roots grow in a circular pattern around the inside of a nursery pot, as well. When we knock a new plant out of its pot, we gently loosen these roots, growing round the outer edge of its root ball, to encourage them to grow out into the surrounding soil. The plant grows more vigorously when its root system expands.
This tiny cutting grew these roots in a little less than two weeks. Once started, sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas, grows vigorously. A tender perennial, the vine will grow until frost kills it back.
I enjoy ornamental sweet potato vines in summer pots, but have not grown any for the last several summers. They are very attractive to deer, and so must be kept out of their reach. They are also such vigorous growers that they can overwhelm other plants in a mixed planting. They are gluttonous for food and drink, and give their best color when grown in full sun.
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I’ve purchased two sweet potato vines of different cultivars this spring, however, and am taking cuttings to add to hanging baskets and planters on our deck. These vines create a lush, tropical look wherever they are used.
Many plants will root quickly in water during spring and early summer. This allows us to buy one established plant, and then quickly produce many clones of it. These new plants grow to a useable size more quickly from cuttings than from seed.
As soon as they grow a few inches of roots they can be potted up or planted in the garden. A large number of plants of a single cultivar can be had in a matter of weeks for mass plantings, at minimal expense.
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These Coleus cuttings are rooting in their vase. They will be ready to plant out by early next week.
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One of my beloved blogging sisters, Eliza, sent me a package of scented Pelargonium cuttings this past week, and they are all happily gathered around my kitchen sink tonight engaged in the business of growing their roots. Half are in a jar of water, and the other half in a pot of damp sand.
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Pelargonium cuttings rooting in my favorite rooting jar.
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She prefers the damp sand method, and I am following her instructions to the letter. I am curious to see which method will prove more effective for rooting cuttings. Which cuttings will root soonest, and with the fewest cuttings lost to decay?
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This is Eliza’s preferred method for rooting cuttings. in clean, damp sand. I’ve kept these covered with a produce bag to increase the humidity around their leaves. The bamboo skewer holds the bag off of their leaves.
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A marvelous and generous gift, I am enjoying the fragrance of these beautiful cuttings, and can’t wait to watch them grow in our garden this summer.
If you’ve not tried creating your own new plants in this way, this is a good time of the season to give it a try.
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It is an interesting way to generate a lot of free plants. As you can see in the photos, roots will begin to grow both from the cut edge of a stem, and also from the nodes where leaves meet stem.
Most gardeners will tell you to remove all leave which would be underwater. That is good advice, and I don’t often follow it. The idea is that if those leaves rot, the water is contaminated and you might lose the whole cutting. As you can see here, the leaves are still just fine, and I have a well-rooted cutting to plant in this mixed pot.
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A newly planted pot on my deck holds Rosemary; Coleus;
‘Carzytunia Sparky’ Petunia; Strawberry and Cream Lanai Verbena; the newly rooted sweet potato cutting; and a volunteer seedling of ornamental pepper moved over from another pot.
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We’ve had a lot of rain today, so it has proven a good day to pot up cuttings. I am looking forward to seeing this pot fill in with lots of lush color and interesting form this summer.
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Woodland Gnome 2015
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Forest Garden 