Whenever I see a beautiful plant with or without flowers, I take a few cuttings of that plant to try its propagation. I have learnt plant propagation by cuttings by now and have propagated several plants and gifted them to my friends.

The plant propagation techniques look difficult, but in fact, are simple to do and easy to learn. Rooting your own plants is much easier than you think.

Many plant cultivars are subject to Plant Breeders Rights (PBR), like a plant patent. You may propagate these plants by any method for your own use but not for commercial purpose. If you wish to resale those propagated plants, you must pay a royalty to the PBR holder.

Plant Propagation Techniques

Different plant propagation techniques are there to produce new plants from a parent plant. The plant propagation can be asexual or sexual type. Most plants can be propagated by one or both of these methods. Each method of plant propagation has advantages and disadvantages.

Sexual Propagation or Propagation From Seeds

Sexual propagation means growing from the reproductive organs, namely the flower, fruits and seeds. The new plant is not genetically identical to the parent plant, so the new plants are not true clones. They can vary in size and shape of the leaves, and flowers can have different size, shape and colour.

The plants grown from seed have a juvenile period before they flower, so it takes much longer to fruit than asexually produced plant to fruit.

There are a number of plants which we cannot germinate from seed because the required special conditions are not known.

Many plants such as Boronia species are difficult to grow from seed, while some species like Acacia species may need special treatment of seeds for germination.

Asexual Propagation or Vegetative Propagation

Asexual propagation is the propagation of a new plant from vegetative organs of the plant, namely stem, root or leaf.

Asexual propagation grows plants that are genetically identical to the parent plant i.e. a clone of the parent plant exactly, preserving the characteristics of the parent plant.

As asexually propagated plants are already mature when they are propagated, so they produce flowers and even fruits immediately.

The plants produced by asexual propagation will also flower and fruit faster than those produced by sexual propagation because plants grown from seed need to pass through a juvenile period before they flower and fruit.

Plants such as Eucalyptus, Acacia species and grasses are very difficult to propagate from cuttings.
The major methods of asexual propagation include cuttings, layering, division and budding or grafting.

In conclusion, different methods of plant propagation are

1. From seeds: Many plants are grown from seeds, but some are difficult to grow from seeds.
2. From cuttings: Several plants are propagated by stem cuttings. Plants that grow from cuttings
3. By layering: Several plants of berry species and flower plants can be propagated by layering.  Propagation by layering method
4. By division: Plants like hydrangea and begonia are propagated by root division.
5. By budding or grafting: Budding and grafting are important methods for propagation of fruit and nut plants, besides roses. How to graft mango tree
6. From leaf cuttings:    How to grow plants from leaf cuttings

Details on each techniques will be given in future posts.
Types of cuttings for propagation
How to take cuttings for propagation

Video on Growing Plants from Cuttings

How to grow plants from cuttings youtube video
Plants that grow from softwood cuttings video