Easy Way to Root Cuttings from Annuals

Horticulture Expert Dr. Lelia Kelly shows how to easily and cheaply root cuttings from garden annuals. Every year there are annuals that you hate to see die in the frost. Most of them root easily. You can take cuttings from them in late summer, root them, grow them over the winter and replant them outside the next spring. Lelia demonstrates how to root a coleus. She uses a knife to cut off a terminal (end of a branch). Then she pinches off the leaves that are low on the cutting and pokes the cut end into some moistened potting soil. She them makes a greenhouse for the plant from either a few sticks and a shower cap or a soda bottle. The greenhouse keeps the plant from drying out. After a few weeks, the cutting will have grown some roots. Place the plant with roots in a bright place and water occasionally during the winter. In the spring, you can go plant it back in the garden. Repeat every year to keep your favorite and best performing plants going year after year.

​July 29, 2017

Related Resources:
Flowering Annuals: Characteristics and Culture
Growing Annual Flowers
Propagation