How to get new plants from your existing ones
One of the most amazing things about plants is the fact that you can cut a bit off them and that ‘bit’, if treated correctly, will grow into a whole new plant. It’s like cutting off someone’s finger and then using it to grow a whole new person. Oh, and, of course, the original person will grow a new finger to replace the one you cut off.
In horticultural terms this is called ‘vegetative propagation’, taking a section of a plant and growing a clone of that plant from it.
Commercially this can be done by as little as a single cell from a plant. In highly controlled conditions, this cell will develop into an entire plant. This ‘how to’ section won’t go quite that techy, but we will explain the numerous different ways in which anyone can propagate plants vegetatively.
Alternatively, you can propagate plants from seeds collected in your own garden.
One thing to note is that different techniques suit different plants, so check what will work with the plant you want to propagate from by looking it up in our plant information section first.
These are the different propagation techniques you can use:
Collecting seeds from your garden
For information on growing plants from seed please see our ‘how to…sow seeds‘ section.
