Propagating Plants: Philodendron Scandens

If you have a trailing plant that just gets too long and leggy and you're not sure about what to do, here's a solution. You can propagate it by triming the vines back. This is an easy way to create more plants for your garden without spending a fortune. For today I will be working with my heart leaf philodendron( philodendron scandens) which has gotten a bit out of control.

It's trying to take over my windowsill. So you can cut back the vines into several cuttings of the length of your choice and also any unhealthy foliage that is definitely not benefiting the plant in terms of its health.

You can either root the cuttings in soil or in water to start the plant off. For me I will plant them in soil and then they will root. The good thing about most trailing varieties of plants is that they're extremely easy to propagate and they grow really fast. After you have all of your cuttings gathered you can plant them into soil or set them into a container of water.

After you're done planting your clippings, all you have to do left is to water thoroughly and watch the progress of your plant. Here's the finished product!

Propagating Plants: Mother in Laws Tongue

Propagating your plants is an easy and economical way to create more plants in your garden without having to buy more plants. For today I will be propagating my mother in laws tongue plant (sansevieria trifasciata) which is a very durable plant. There are two different ways of propagating this particular plant 1. division of their underground stems and 2. leaf cuttings. I'm going to do the leaf cutting method.

The material that you will need for this propagation is a pot with soil

Second you will need to gather some healthy leaves from your mother in laws tongue plant, if you happen to get cuttings of variegated leaves with the yellow border in this method the outcome of the plants will not have the variegation anymore just the plain green variety.

The leaves that I collected are variegated so they will lose the yellow border
Third: if your leaves are shorter then cut them into 2 sections, if they are longer then cut them into 3 or 4 sections.

Now that you have all of your cuttings now 4. its time to plant them and to remember to plant them right side up or else the cutting will not work and take root.

Here's the finished product. The last step is to water them to keep the soil moist but not too wet or the cuttings will rot. Place in location with indirect bright light until roots form. I will post when new plants pop up. It will take a few weeks for it to take root and a few months for new plants to appear so patience is the key to this propagation and you will be rewarded with new plants!

Prayer Plant/ Rooted Spiderplant

                                                               Prayer Plant
This is my prayer plant and its enjoying the indirect light in my east facing window. I bought this plant last month as a present to myself on my birthday from my local home depot. This is a cool plant to have, and it is in the maranta family. At night the leaves close to be in a position like praying hands. It did shed a few leaves due to the move over a week ago but now is recovering.

                                                     Rooted Spider Plant
This is a clipping from my spiderplant that produced some runners. This is a very easy method to propagate spiderplants. This one in particular have been growing in water for about a month now and has a few roots growing. Probably next month or march I'll plant it into some soil and have a new plant.

Houseplants for the Year beginning of 2012

                          Patio Garden
This is my patio garden. This patio that I have now faces east which means that it gets sunlight in the  morning hours until around noon so great for plants for lower light or moderate needs in terms of care for it. In the picture above they are gettng morning sun and enjoying and adjusting to the new conditons.

                                                      Indoor Plants
These are my indoor plants that are in an east facing window that goes onto my patio. They're adjusting to the new conditions also. I did notice some new growth on my zz plant in particular and I'm excited because it lost a lot of stems due to the cooler temperatures this past winter. I hope that you all had a Happy New Year and hope that you enjoyed my first post for 2012!