Snip a cutting and stick it in water, roots in 3 days, even a 20-litre pot can't hold it

Rooting Gardenia Cuttings in Water

Spring is here, and gardenias are ready to grow again. This is also the easiest time of year for cuttings to root, so why not give it a try?

Water propagation steps:

1. Prepare a large cola bottle and use scissors to cut a slit in the upper part of the bottle. Be careful not to cut it off completely; just leave a portion attached on one side.

2. Prepare the gardenia cuttings you need. It's best to choose healthy, semi-lignified branches, about 7-10cm long. You can leave 1-2 leaves on each cutting, and cut the bottom end at a 45° angle.

3. Prepare a piece of foam board and use scissors to cut it into a circle the same shape as the cola bottle, just slightly smaller than the bottle's diameter. Then insert the cuttings you want to propagate into the foam board.

4. Place the foam board into the cola bottle, add water, and let the bottom ends of the gardenia cuttings soak in the water. Because the foam board floats on the water's surface, the leaves won't rot. Finally, seal the bottle opening with tape, put the cap back on, and poke a few holes in the cap for ventilation.

5. Place the cola bottle somewhere indoors where it can get sunlight. The gardenia leaves inside will photosynthesise and promote rooting. The more water droplets form on the inside of the bottle, the higher the temperature inside, and the faster the rooting will be.

6. In just about 7-10 days, the gardenia cuttings in the cola bottle will grow a mass of white roots!

Rooting Bougainvillea Cuttings in Water

Bougainvillea comes in a wide range of colours and blooms for over half the year at a time. If you can graft them together, the mix of colours is even more stunning!

Water propagation steps:

1. Buy a few transparent acrylic tubes, then use a knife to cut them into small sections about 7-10cm long and set them aside.

2. Prepare healthy bougainvillea branches and peel off the outer bark from about 2cm of the bottom end. This prevents the bark from rotting. Then wrap the branch with a strip of non-woven fabric, with one end of the strip level with the bottom of the branch.

3. Insert the bougainvillea branch, together with the non-woven fabric, into the acrylic tube. This not only keeps the branch moist and ventilated but also prevents the cutting from rotting.

4. Prepare a plastic tray, add 2cm of water, then add some rooting powder and stir. After that, place the bougainvillea cuttings in.

5. In about 5-7 days, many small white dots will appear at the bottom of the bougainvillea cuttings. At this point you can prepare to pot them up, or you can wait until the white dots grow out into roots before potting.

6. Cut paper napkins into strips, moisten them with water, and wrap them around the branch starting from the base. Wrapping the branch with tissue paper during propagation temporarily isolates the tender roots from contact with organic matter in the soil, which helps rooting.

7. For the propagation soil, you can prepare perlite, vermiculite and peat moss. Cut a plastic bottle open, burn 3-5 evenly spaced holes in the bottom, then place vermiculite at the bottom as a base layer, and fill the plastic bottle with a nutrient soil mix of peat moss and perlite.

8. Put the bougainvillea branch into the nutrient soil in the plastic bottle, cover the seedling with the top half of the bottle, water thoroughly once, and place it on a sunny windowsill. In less than about 1 month, you'll see bougainvillea roots poking out from the bottom of the plastic bottle.

9. Use scissors to cut the plastic bottle open, being careful not to break up the soil around the roots. Then transplant into a larger pot, place it in a cool, ventilated spot to recover for 1 week, and after that you can put it directly in full sun.

Rooting Pothos Cuttings in Water

Recently Huahua pruned some pothos and ended up with quite a few cuttings. These will root just by being tossed in water, and soon they'll become a whole new pot of pothos!

Water propagation steps:

1. Choose healthy pothos branches, then cut them into small sections about 5-7cm long.

2. Prepare a small bottle filled with water, with the water level at about 2/3 of the bottle. Then insert the bottom ends of the cuttings into the water and place it somewhere with bright indirect light.

3. In just about 1 week, the pothos cuttings in water will sprout tiny roots.

4. Once rooted, the pothos can either stay in the bottle to grow, or you can prepare a loose, airy nutrient soil and transplant the rooted pothos into a pot for soil culture. Either way, the pothos will grow like crazy!

Rooting Kalanchoe Cuttings in Water

Many plant lovers' kalanchoes have recently finished blooming. When you prune them, don't throw away the cut branches. Just use them for water propagation, and in no time they'll become a brand new pot of kalanchoe!

Water propagation steps:

1. From the pruned kalanchoe branches, pick out the healthy ones and trim them slightly. Leave 2-3 leaves on each cutting.

2. Soak the kalanchoe cuttings in rooting solution for about 20 minutes, let them dry, then insert them into clean water with the bottom ends just barely touching the water. Place them somewhere with good indirect light to grow.

3. In just about 7-10 days, the kalanchoe cuttings in water will grow white roots.

4. After rooting, you can either keep them growing in the water propagation bottle to enjoy the white roots, or transfer them directly into a pot for soil culture. They'll fill the pot in no time!

That's all from Huahua for today!

Which flowers' propagation methods would you plant lovers like to see next?

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