First of all I believe that you must determine the botanical name of this plant. Common names are mostly meaningless and perhaps a hundred miles away, your common name is completely unknown!!!
Secondly, I would very strongly recommend taking a look at Ken Druse's publication; Making More Plants. The library call number is 635.9 DRU. It is invaluable for a person like yourself who seems to be just beginning.
Thirdly, if you are able to determine the correct, current name of the China Doll, please let me know what it is.

The common name is NOT completely unknown!! If you can't look it up for yourself here it is!! China Doll Radermachera sinica. Common Name: China Doll, Emerald Tree, Serpent Tree Latin Name: Radermachera Sinica Family: Bignoniaceae

Dalar, I am interested to know how it turned out! I have a China Doll that is quite leggy, tall and really full on top and I am thinking of cutting it back. Such a shame because the top is extremely full and healthy! I am interested to know if the top part can be rooted to make a second plant. Did yours take root??

I totally agree with taxonomist, throwing out a name like "China Doll" is totally insufficient. There are cultivars of more than one plant called 'China Doll' and probably variations of that name. Maybe one could argue that by including both "China Doll" and "Emerald Tree", one could narrow it down using a search engine (if not familiar with both names), but using the correct scientific name would make things MUCH easier!

The best propagation is from seed of course! And for $3.00 per 1000 seeds, you cant go wrong. Try Seedscoseeds.com (anderson seed co.) if you really want to propagate them this is the way to go.

Unfortunately, many people just assume that a common name refers to only one plant. This naive viewpoint is probably due to lack of experience, but certainly adds to the confusion out there. Take, for instance, the name "China Doll". I can think of at least a dozen different species of plants with that name as one of its common names, as one of the cultivar names, or as part of one of these. Describing it as being universally associated with just one plant is...well just universally wrong. As I pointed out originally, having both "China Doll" and "Emerald Tree", does point strongly to SirenaNe's recommendation. But, someone not familiar with both of these names would have to do a google search or something to figure out what was being discussed. I actually think Taxonomist's attempt to point this out was quite helpful, and MUCH more so than that last post.

Regardless of generalities, the google search linked above is conclusive on this particular plant to me.

I see that Dalar has not seen this discussion worthy of return or followup comment, which is usually the case for any OP who receives such answers. And I know they are from people who could have easily helped confirm the ID of the plant in question. A step I agree is necessary to avoid incorrectness and wasted time but there is no reason to just say "I can't say until YOU figure out the Latin name of your plant" unless you are just trying to massage your own ego. Brandon, you provided a pleasant, informative reply to a question of mine in shrub forum today. You could have easily done the same here, we both know it.
"Is your tree is a Radermachera sinica? The reason we should confirm that is..." C'mon dude, fer real man.

Maybe Tax could have done the Google search and found the plant, but it's also possible he tried and couldn't make a determination! I don't personally know Tax and have no idea how good he is with Google, but lets assume that he had never heard the common name of the plant and didn't realize that the OP's mention of "Emerald Tree" referred to a common common-name (I can sure see, given the wording of the original post, how that part could be overlooked). Now let's imagine he googled "China Doll" (without the word "plant"). Remember, we don't know how crafty he might be with Google (probably most people I talk to on here lack really good googling skills). Who knows how many search results he would have had to have gone through to even find an entry with the proper ID, and, even then, how would he know when he had (remember he may not have even been thinking about the "Emerald Tree" mention).

The important point, IMO, is that this thread remained unanswered for FOUR YEARS because no one came along that could properly ID the plant. Some of this was certainly because the post eventually slipped down before someone that could do the ID saw it (I probably didn't run across it until SirenaNe brought it back up), but a BIG part of why it wasn't answered was because of a lack of proper ID. Apparently, NO ONE that read the post in those four years could ID the plant. Imagine how easy it would have been if the OP had been able to provide the proper ID up front! That's why using the botanical names of plant (whenever possible) is soooooo important.

And, BTW, the reason I didn't go back and answer the OP was that it had been 4 years and there was no response from the OP. I felt it very likely that the OP was no longer looking for the answer and had probably even forgot about asking.

Sorry about the confusion. I am not advertising. I just love anderson seed and i LOVE china dolls. Eric is a very nice guy, him and me talk for hours about seeds and china dolls. The tip cutting will root, but they are very prone to just sit there and rot. And forget completely rooting anything other than a bud tip, it just don't happen fast enough before the plant dies out. Germinating Radermachera seed is not easy either, as they will damp off unless you use a fungicide soil drench. I grow china doll seeds in a jiffy 72 cell pack, i use Captan at time of planting, and i use a bottom heat pad and i cover the seed flat with the plastic cover. At 85 degrees you will get 75% or more germination. This is by far the easiest way to propigate them. A couple of years ago i had 60 4" plants that i grew and gave away and sold for a couple bucks. They had too many plants in each pot tho, so they did not grow fast. I did this outside on my back patio.

Hi,
Thanks to every one for the information. I love this plant. it is so pretty. First stop is for Captan, after I get the seeds of course. Any sugestions about Shefflera? I bought 2 plants that looked healthy but both died within a week??? Any help would be so greatly appreciated, thanks again, Liz2525

Wow!! I was looking up info on my "china doll" plant and all I got was people bickering back and forth about "proper" names. Thanks everyone for NOTHING!

Using Latin names usually gives a lot of information when doing an online search. I'm Dutch and when I read "china doll" all I can think about is "a doll made in China" ;)

RankScientific Name and Common Name

Kingdom Plantae – Plants

Subkingdom Tracheobionta – Vascular plants

Superdivision Spermatophyta – Seed plants

Division Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants

Class Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons

Subclass Asteridae

Order Scrophulariales

Family Bignoniaceae – Trumpet-creeper family

Genus Radermachera Zoll. & Moritzi – china doll

SpeciesRadermachera sinica (Hance) Hemsl. – china doll

The common name China Doll returns ONE scientitfic rank profile. ONE.

It took me literally 30 seconds to find this on a search of "china doll plant scientific name" now, years later you all have the answer to what this mysterious plant is called..... exactly what it was called in the first place.... what a waste of your time and energy to be incredibly unhelpful... and rude.

Also, curious to now those dozen plants with this common name.... no mention of them anywhere on the internet in my searches....

To answer the question IF anyone is interested: it is hard to propagate these (I don't know why), if you do try, cut a green stem not the woody ones, place in soil not water, place a bag over the top so it can have a humid environment while it tries to put out those roots, place in a bright location but not direct sunlight. Keep it moist but not sopping wet. Good luck! Out of 5 tries 2 have been successful for me. I agree its easier from seed but there is just something about trying to get those roots to grow from a stem.... love the challenge!

Tried shrivel every time