Grow Next Year’s Annuals From Cuttings From This Year’s Plants.
Planting annual flowers can be a frustrating experience: you spend a lot of money (either on seeds or seeds) and put all that time into planting only to see them die at the end of the season. This is why new plants should be propagated from cuttings every year.
Reproduction is more efficient and selective than growing from seeds.
There are two good reasons to learn how to propagate from cuttings, and the first is efficiency. It’s faster and cheaper to grow your own plant duplicates from another plant you own, whether you grew it yourself or paid for it. Yes, you could grow more from seed, but there is a risk of germination failure, as well as the time required. The spread occurs faster, by many weeks.
The second reason is selectivity. Choose plants that you really like and that grow well and propagate them. You decide to create replicas of the plants that are best suited for your yard. Not for nothing, but you can do this at the end of the season, bring the cuttings inside for the winter and feed them so that you have a finished plant in the spring. At this point, you can take cuttings from this new mother plant and, in a few weeks, prepare the soil for growing in the garden. This is how commercial gardeners keep mother plants for propagation in their greenhouses all winter.
How to propagate by cuttings
It’s so simple that it’s honestly stupid that we don’t all do it. The first step is choosing a suitable plant. You want one that is doing well and that you really like. At this point, you need to cut a cutting 3-4 inches long. Some notes: You will need to use clean scissors or pruning shears. Pre-spray them with vinegar, Lysol, or a bleach solution. Once you have the cutting, remove all the leaves from the bottom half of the cutting.
You are going to dip the last two inches in rooting hormone. This powder can be purchased at a nursery and although the cuttings will sometimes take root on their own, it will stimulate root growth, which is what we want. After dipping the cutting, you can place it in the soil mixture. I use trays with rosettes so they are easy to separate and plant once they are established. These trays need to be watered often enough to keep the soil moist but not soggy. After a week or two you should see growth, and after four weeks you can either transplant the cuttings into larger pots or display them in your yard.