I have rerooted entire tops of a few new $50 hostas which have been broken off of the crown by stray animals or children. As you have observed, they root easily , although I have generally used potting soil rather than water. Actually this is a fairly good way to expand a nice plant rapidly. Last one I did was "fire and Ice" which my wife accidentally knocked off the bench as I was trying to decide where to plant it. Broke off 2 of the 3 tops, so I ended up with 2 new 1 crown plants and the original 3 crown one (which regrew) in a few weeks.

George

It is very encouraging to know successful results of smilar experiment from fellow gardener.
I have rooted leaves of sweet potatoe and hoya in past. Just for information.

Chiman

Hmm what did i do wrong, i tried rooting patriot leaves in water they just got slimy and died. ( yes i changed the water)

What was the temp. surrounding your leaf cuttings?
I had kept my cuttings at 75 to 80 deg. temp. (approx.).

Well i'm not all to sure temp would have averaged 85-90 as it was summer and maybe sometimes 100. I had them on the porch, should i of had them under the patio. Didn't even think that i may have been boiling them and making Hosta green soup instead.

hockymom, dunno think its referred to as eye as opposed to crown or maybe the eye has a crown or crown has eyes. I'm fairly new to them as well. At any rate i've only had success at divisions.

When a friend of my husband's arrived for a business trip, he brought me a variety of Hosta leaves along with a couple sunflowers...a very pretty arrangement. All but one leaf dried up before long, but one beautiful big leaf still looks as fresh as ever.

I have no idea what variety it is, but would like to try rooting it to have a plant of my own. I see no roots forming on the stalk. Should I cut the stalk up close to the leaf and try it like I would an African Violet leaf? Is there any hope at all for it?

Up to now, I've thought the only way to do it was to divide the plant, but I know this man does not intend to do that with his beautiful plant.

Thank you for your advice!

BJ

It seem the reported leaf rooting is nothing more then taking a division.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rooting Hosta Leaves

I know this is an old discussion but I also have rooted hosta from leaf cuttings.

The first was when I knocked off several leaves with my lawn mower while trimming. I took the leaves, trimmed the broken ends of the stems with a sharp scalpel, dipped them in rooting solution and placed them in water filled jars in the shade on the screen porch.

It was summer here in east Tennessee and quite hot but all I did was replace any water lost to evaporation. In less than two weeks there were roots appearing on two of the three leaves. The third was soon lost but the other two continued to produce roots. I added just a slight amount of liquid fertilizer to the water and when the root formation seemed sufficient I transplanted them into pots with potting soil. Eventually they went back into the ground.

I have since rooted a number of leaves using this method and average about 50 to 75 percent success. At no time have I ever included part of the crown. All the leaves are ones that are broken off by myself or by animals and there is nothing but leaf and part of the stem.

Thank you for the follow up, Troutwind. I'm going to try that.

Excellent topic- I have some beauties, and it's pretty hot here in Nc right now- can't wait to try it!
Thanks so much!
kasha77

I've never even considered rooting hosta from a leaf. Thanks so much for this info, everyone. I need a dozen new plants for my walkway. Enjoy your garden.

I've never tried it either - but guess what I'm going to be doing tomorrow! Thanks troutwind, for reopening this discussion. I have divided mine, and done so successfully, but I also have quite a few with unusual leaves that are not anything I want to really divide, but I'd love to make some additional plants from them to put along a walk way in our tree grove.

Thanks for the info!

Having stumbled upon this old thread with great interest. I would love to hear more about the process of rooting hosta leaf cuttings.

I have a few streaked hostas that have all but reverted (no eyes producing new streaked leaves). It would be wonderful to start new plants using the remaining streaked leaves.

I'll start some experiments shortly but would anyone who has done it, be willing to provide additional details about the process (I only have a few leaves to work with).

How much of the petiole is removed from the plant? One of the people in this thread showing success states that none of the crown is present in the leaves he rooted.

What rooting compound was used?

If time of year important?

hockymom, dunno think its referred to as eye as opposed to crown or maybe the eye has a crown or crown has eyes. I'm fairly new to them as well. At any rate i've only had success at divisions.

Indeed, in common hosta parlance they are INCORRECTLY referred to as 'eyes'. As per the Hosta Dictionary on the AHS website 'eye' refers to DORMANT shoot, once it begins to grow it is no longer an eye but a shoot.

I have tried this method of propagation without any success. After failing with it and having much better luck with division, I have stuck with the latter.

Pieter

I am new to Hosta gardening. I recently discovered I can root hosta stems in water. These are single leaf stems. I cut a few stems from a large hosta plant and rooted them in water together. it took about a week for the roots to develop. I then took the entire group and planted them together as a clump. They are growing and doing great.

leaves will not root ...

unless there is a piece of crown attached to the bottom of the leaf ...

there is a very active hosta forum ... if you are interested ...

ken

I am very interested in knowning how you guys were able to get roots to grow from cuttings. I have tried using in grow rocks and a hot box with a heat mat but have had no luck. I also have some cuttings put into a fish bowl with some grow rocks and nutrient water. Its only been a day but we shall see. My next step is to try them in a pot with soil. If you have any advice or tips I would love to hear them.

Thank you Ken. Yes, I am interested in the hosta forum. Please send me the site info.

go to the top of the page.. and hit the link to FORUMS.. and look for hosta ...

otten.. i said it cant be done with leaves .. good luck with finding directions on how to do it

ken

I love all of the comments and suggestions

I have grown hosta leaf cuttings. I was surprised too. I had huge hostas trimmed and felt bad throwing out the leaf cuttings. I just placed them in a bucket with water and lo and behold they grew roots (I did not do anything special)! I have a lot of new hosta plants growing in pots and on the ground. I did not count how many of the cuttings survived, but definitely more grew roots than not!

I disagree with not growing hostas from a cutting. I have a giant hostas that I have taken several leaves off of in the past that grew more giant hostas. As a matter of fact that was how i got the cutting I began with. We moved this year and I took several I propagated in water last year as soon as the leaves came up this spring and also cut several new leaves without roots from the original plant and have them in water now growing. Hostas are fun to grow and add beauty to any garden or fence line. I now have 10 different leaf colors for my ne house.