How to Propagate: Techniques and Tips for Over 1000 Plants

Almost all modern home gardeners run to a nursery at the start of every new growing season and stock up on perennials, maple saplings, and shrubs—but they don't have to. Propagating one’s own plants is far from a difficult gardening feat, and it can be an exhilarating gardening accomplishment. The propagation techniques explained in this guide make it easy to propagate many common plants. Detailed information on plant hygiene, temperature and humidity, and the care of newborn plants up to planting time will round out a budding propagator’s knowledge, and get them started on the road to home-grown success.

Almost all modern home gardeners run to a nursery at the start of every new growing season and stock up on perennials, maple saplings, and shrubs—but they don't have to. Propagating one’s own plants is far from a difficult gardening feat, and it can be an exhilarating gardening accomplishment. The propagation techniques explained in this guide make it easy to propagate many common plants. Detailed information on plant hygiene, temperature and humidity, and the care of newborn plants up to planting time will round out a budding propagator’s knowledge, and get them started on the road to home-grown success.

John Cushnie has been propagating plants for more than 40 years, and is the author of Gardener's Question Time and Trees for the Yard and Garden. He is the presenter of BBC-TV's The Greenmount Garden and writes for the Daily Telegraph, Interior and Living, and Gardener's World.