AC THE PROPAGATOR

INTRODUCTION

THE COMPLETE BOOK OF PROPAGATION 

BY

Graham Clarke and Alan Toogood 

I have mentioned this book before, is the best I have seen on the subject.

The Greeks

Some 2000 years ago the Greek philosopher Theophrastus, who is best remembered for his botanical works and the book Enquiry into plants, wrote of the widely cultivated plants of the day.  Olive trees and date palms were grown

from seeds, and so were rather more familiar garden vegetables such as beet, cabbage, celery, cress, cucumber,

leeks, lettuce, onion, radish and turnip.  Parsley, thyme and hollyhocks also feature heavily in his ancient writings.

Cuttings from plants were also described by Theophrastus. The earliest types of cutting were, in fact, rooted suckers which had been uncermoniously pulled off

the parent plant and set in the ground.  Today we call these pieces of shoot with roots attached: "Irishman's cuttings".  However it had been observed that some plants could be propagated successfully by taking cuttings without roots already attached, and these included almond, apple, basil, bay, fig, marjoram, pear and pomegranate. 

In June 2011 AC The Propagator presented two examples of leaf and cut stem propagation in his blog in the third person.  The roots developed for a couple of weeks in water. It is slow but it cost nothing.  Turnera subulata and Pseuderantemun reticulatum are two of many I have propagated through the years. But the leaf one is the first, after watching a good friend, who learned it from her mother. Featured on 5/21/11,

A Historical Urban Garden Inventory in Caguas.

Every gardener in the trade has his/her own tricks and preferences.  Root hormones is another possibility, but they cost money, and takes some time also.  I only use this with difficult to propagate Bouganvilleas or Allamandas to name two. I mean survival rates. How many of every 3 make it?

There are more or less eleven ways to propagate. Fundamentally I use three. Division, seeds, cuts stems with/without roots. If the subject interest you...You know the drill. Research.

that is that