You're speaking my language! I did mostly seeds and purchases until Covid hit. Then out of boredom, I started trying to propagate a few things. Then I became obsessive with it, much to my family's dismay. Well, winter crept up on us, and I wasn't about to lose any of my babies! Luckily I have a 2.5 garage. Then I got bored during winter and started buying LED plant lights and stainless steel shelves on wheels. When Spring came around, I asked my boys to help me cart all of these plants in and out during freeze warnings. Suddenly the boys became deaf and wouldn't make eye contact.

I got sick and wasn't able to so much this year. I'm sure it didn't break their hearts! Once in a blue moon I'll take limited amount of cuttings. I just cannot help myself! I don't 'need' them. I just love doing it! When I have the energy and strength these days, I'm focusing more on building more beds. It drives my partner crazy because he just bought a new lawn tractor. I told him he should have bought a back hoe or something. Grass is such a waste of space to me!

The price of plants and especially of annuals has added to my obsession of saving money as well as making more plants. As I come to terms with getting older and not being able to do so much time consuming and physical labor, I've turned to more shrubs and perennials. I do love my annuals for lengthy blooms and color though. Now if I could just learn to design and plan better, I'd have it made!

What are your favorites to propagate? The one thing I have not had any success with is Purple Leaf Sand Cherry. My favorite thing to propagate is phlox.

Hi All,

My hobby is zinnias and I have used plant lights and steel shelves to help with that. I got started years ago, so my plant lights are not the latest technology (LEDs) and I am still using some older fluorescent shop lights. I learned to overdrive those fixtures from user Zink here at the old GardenWeb for greater light output.

We are currently moving from our rural location to an in-town apartment, but I will continue to pursue my zinnia hobby as best I can. I currently have those steel shelves and plant lights in storage. (I wish Houzz would let us arrange those two-photo thumbnails side-by-side. These multi-photo messages would look a lot better if Houzz supported that.)

ZM

Zen man, if I recall, you breed zinnias, don't you? I'm not always signed in and may not post a lot, but I've been on GW since about 2004. I've seen many of your pretty zinnias!

Zinnias are one of my favorite flowers for the pop of color, the non stop flowers, and the fact that the birds, bees, and butterflys like them so much.

As much as I'm leaning to more perennials, I'll never give up zinnias, petunias, and nicotiana!

My newest lasagna bed

Nice job! It's beautiful and looks great in front of the stone! I have 3 babies from a friends garden. I hope they turn out as full as this one!

I was just thinking today that maybe I'm a bit obsessive about propagating plants. I like doing it. In very hard freezes I haul them in and out from under my house, sometimes getting a little help but usually not. Have seen a bat, snake, spiders, and a rat under my house so I don't like doing it, also I can't stand up straight under my house. Most of the time my small plants are out in the open all winter. ( zone 7a, NC)

This spring I had luck rooting some varieties of roses that I have had a lot of trouble rooting. This spring was very rainy and I'm thinking that that was the only difference. The cuttings must have started out better hydrated. I had luck rooting buddliea, and just found some kind of Rex type of begonia rooted. Had put some cut leaves in a pot. Rooted some salvia and clematis. Last year I had about 30 or 40 clematis plants rooted. Only about a third of them made it through the winter. Am wondering whether and how to overwinter them indoors.

I had a small rose nursery for awhile but am semi-retired. I grew some plants from seed this spring which I had never seen such as butterfly weed, azalea type snapdragons, Aztec zinnias , Creme de Cassis hollyhocks, Fama Blue scabiosa, Love Lies Bleeding, a peach gaillardia. Some tomatoes. It's fun to see these plants for the first time.

I grow open pollinated rose seeds for fun and so I can name them. Here's my Jack Daniel, named after our late dog. It is a seedling of Louis XIV, which is about the same color. Jack Daniel has a much smaller bloom.

Little Aztec zinnias

I've always had great luck with cuttings of most things. I've dialed up my seed game for the last five or six years, and can safely say I've only tried one species that daunts me (impatiens pallida) with it's double dormancy. I've grown other double dormancy plants (like clematis and some hellebores) successfully.

The scale of pricing (buying plants vs seeds) impacts me...especially since I'm playing brute force gardening. Plant enough that some of them survive in various spots (ie finding what they like).

This results in some interesting things. I started coreopsis lanceolata (sand coreopsis requires good drainage..which I don't have) in 2013. Over the course of the generations, they have adapted to my environment. Last year we had a drought and I did not water them at all, they should (typically) have been fine. Every single one died. Luckily a seed bank population is now manifesting all over the lawn.

erasmus: Thank you for sharing your photos!

I also take way more cuttings than I need, knowing they won't all make it. It took me a few seasons to figure out how to propagate my roses. Mostly, I had the mix entirely too wet. I did learn the hard way that I should keep them potted up longer, versus sticking them in the ground too early. I have quite a few babies now. I have two temporary beds/spots for them, but really need to get going on new beds for them.

dbarron: I still to this day collect seeds from a number of plants. Petunias, coreopsis, nicotiana, zinnias, vinca, salvia, rudbeckia, and Basket of Gold, to name a few. I love growing from seed, because I get so bored during winter and early Spring when I still cannot do anything outdoors! And of course, I love saving money!

Gawdinfever, thanks. I’m just baffled how it grew so fast like that but I’ll take it. Your babies should grow to that size in no time. Alot of people don’t like propagating plants themselves because they think it will take forever to achieve the desired looks they want but I learned that that isn’t necessarily the case. Many of my other cuttings/seedlings grew to almost maturity in just their second year.

Smashing plant heruga. I love that rose, Erasmus. I am a bit of a rose-y type too. but I have never really felt I had enough specific knowledge in depth, to invest the time and effort on breeding. Cuttings are generally quicker than seeds...which can take years. I don't mind waiting because there is always something new coming along. To my shame, I have often fallen down various rabbitholes where I am obsessing about this or that plant, with not really much consideration to where I am going to plant them...or even why. They are often terribly random. I bloody love the whole process, starting from collecting seed. We are comrades in leafy arms, Gawdinfever.

What really got me completely hooked on seeds was buying a little LED loupe, with a 40 x - 60 x magnification. My God...who knew how beautiful, how sculptural, diverse and fascinating a seed would be, when examined closely. Right now, I have just gathered up shiny, winged almost insectile habranthus seeds (they also have a tiny eliosome). And as for the eritrichium I just prised apart - they are shaggy and feral, while ox-eyes have that elegant fluted shape common to many in the daisy family. Some, like rehmannia, glisten like a faceted jewel and some possess fabulous furled tails, like tiny lyre birds. Smitten. And often free but never that expensive even if bought in.

I mainly practised cuttings with a well-known medicinal (and recreational) plant. Then those very easily rootables such as shrubby salvias and lavenders. And tender plants which were easier to overwinter as a new cutting instead of lugging huge pots of pelargonium into the greenhouse. Last year, I did a coupla dozen rose cuttings (hardwood), which will be ready to go in the ground (somewhere?) this autumn. It can be hit and miss and, as with seeds, I always have more than I could possibly plant.

We are all singing from a similar hymn book here - one driven by curiosity and a desire for a closer relationship with each little green individual.

I love starting things from seed, watching the curve of the stem and then those little cotyledons bursting through the soil!

It's wonderful how you sing the praises of the tiniest things, Camp.

One thing about growing roses from seed, they often bloom while they're so small I haven't yet potted them up from the flat. So it's not that long a wait to at least see some color. Here's one I was really excited about due to pretty form and great fragrance but alas, it has remained a stunted, wimpy plant for a couple of years.

I named it Land of the Free. Probably will toss it....it gets too much to take care of them.

Such porcelaine loveliness Erasmus. Maybe give it another year because some can be slow developers ( like myself ).I germinated a lone stylophorum lasiocarpum this year, so, unimpressed with my efforts I poked it in the ground with scant consideration,and promptly forgot about it. Anyway, I had to move a load of pots to cut back a ceonothus and lo,a wood poppy, all grown up - it even had a coupla blooms. Never grown this before so I was thrilled at the substance of this handsome plant. I will save the seeds and probably just scatter a few in the same vicinity.

Currently germinating, from a July sowing: uruspermum dalechampii, several echium sp., fibigea clypeata, linum capitata,, ipomopsis rubra, digitalis sp and erysimum scoparium. Socalgal, I so agree - I am to be found hovering over the seedling pots with a 10x magnifying glass, watching and waiting for the first transformation. On one hand, this is an entirely quotidian, ordinary process...yet it still feels like a small miracle.

I feel tremendously fortunate to have embraced horticulture. So accessible, diverse, egalitarian and therapeutic. A trip to the greenhouse is absolutely guaranteed to brighten the most dismal day or onerous circumstances. And for sure, the effort invested into raising our own plants does give me a sense of achievement, not far removed from the delight (and worry) I have always taken in ,my children and animal companions.

I love starting things from seed. I take cuttings of a few things here and there, mostly salvia. That's about as much as my own nursery that I am. Unless you count dividing plants -- I do that, too.

I do a fair amount. Though I will buy a big grower’s pot of something when I’m impatient. Or will buy a potful and plant it in more ideal soil/sun/ watering so it will prosper & be divisible in a year or so. I do more cuttings than seeds, because have trouble getting seeds enough light for vigorous bushy growth, but want to do more seeds. Also lot of layering of shrubs. I had poor results from seeds I stratified in the frig and outside last winter- not sure why.

My biggest problem is keeping small pots or flats watered during extended summer drought, for things that need more time or fall planting. Can see a whole year’s work go up in flames if get complacent or go out of town w/o a plant- sitter.

There is also the tyranny of such “ babies “- I get carried away making new plants and then have pressure to find places to plant them. My new-to-me property if pretty challenging and so can’t just dig an easy home & stick something in—lot of rock removal or bed prep needed.

I’m trying to do better about preparing small planting areas way ahead, even if have to de-weed again, in areas that align with the likely plants( deer-resistant, drought, sun conditions) so plants can go in during times we’ll get some rain to help.

Grief yes, the summer attrition rates of little seedlings can be really disheartening, Marmie. It is a case of choosing the lesser of two evils - whether to keep the little plants under my wing, where I can perform the endless, stressy watering...or whether to send them off 'in the wild' where they can reach beyond the confines of tiny pots, but are out of sight at the allotment - a bike ride away. I almost always take the risks of a summer planting as nurtured plans at home invariably grow fast and lush, setting up an escalating irrigation crisis.

Do you agree that growing your own is educational? Raising plans has definitely been instrumental in gaining an understanding of how plants work. Something about the intimacy of tending to seedlings at the very start of life has increased my confidence. The pace and scale is very conducive to close observation. The value of simply looking is very evident on the 'Name that plant forum'. 'How do you do it?', I asked of thread participants. To a man and woman, there was unanimous agreement - 'we look...we study...we examine'.

Seems obvious but whenever I bought a fully grown plant, I never really developed the same sort of relationship. If asked to describe the exact leaf shape of the verbena rigida I bought over the summer, I would struggle with a precise description. Nor would I feel that comfortable with it's ongoing needs. Otoh, I have followed the progress of the eryngium planum next to it...from flower, to seed, to flower again...and I know this plant well.

I have to own to buying more ready-grown plants than usual this year...which has also been advantageous. Growing ALL your own plants can take years. It is really hard to formulate a scheme or a plan, then stick to it for several years. I found that buying a few mature plants gave me the structure to hang a design around...rather than the incoherent and confused collection of randoms.

All in all, this year has been one of the most satisfying for years. I know we still have months to go...but in previous Julys, I have often been in despair. It's like hedging your bets. Grow a shedload of stuff and you are bound to have something to cherish...and buy some effortless biggies to get you over the nail-biting worries of raising babies.

Yes, I feel very connected to my plant babies.
Also, actual “ planting” for me is strenuous, requiring pickaxe, shovel, rock removal. It is a good change of pace ( or a recovery day!) to work with little pots, the alchemy of soil mixtures stirred up in the potting shed, delicate placement of little seeds and cuttings.

Such an interesting thread! I can't propagate stuff to save my life, though, unfortunately. I've pretty much given up. I had a huge (15 foot tall) rhodie in front of my house that I had to remove and it had the loveliest soft pink blooms. I tried sooo hard to propagate cuttings from that thing - three years, spring, fall, you name it, I tried, and they all died. That was my last shot at propagation.

I do start things from seed. I'm a dedicated winter-sower. Never had luck with seed-starting till I tried that and have been doing it for almost 25 years. Despite my success however I always worry about germination and so I always horribly over-sow! Do I really need 30-50 plants of 20 different cosmos? Here are the latest victims of my overeager sowing, probably going to the compost pile this week:

Because I worry that six seeds of one tomato variety will ALL fail. So of course I sow the whole packet of 25. It's a curse lol

:)

Dee

I grew some Better Boy tomatoes from seed this year and ended up with too many plants so gave some to neighbors. One neighbor lives alone. I gave her one in a big pot...it was a bit stressed...I'd forgotten to water it. I told her maybe it would make it...that I thought it could recover. Well, she evidently is babying it...she bought it a wire stake thing, has it bushed out and upright...it is green and I can see some big tomatoes coming along on it.

I am using a tall sturdy rose plant as a stake for one of my tomatoes. It works! Worked last year. Changed the planting spot a bit but it is about to the top of the rose ...6 or 7 '.

I hear a lot about " allotments" in England. What are they?

Allotments are an amount of land which was provided by the local council, for the leisure and amenity of the working man (or woman). There were over a million of these plots, but because of development and such, we now only have around 300,000. They are a fixed size, measured in poles (or rods or perches) - 5.5yds square. Most allotments are 10 poles (I have 2) so approx 1/8th of an acre. I pay around £2 a week to the city in rent.

Sounds like a good thing. My parents must have had an allotment when we lived on a military base in the 50's. We bicycled over there and grew some vegetables.

We have a a family wedding coming up and there's a gathering at our house the day after. I've tidied up the micro garden a bit and there are consequently some gaps. I thought i'd pop out to a garden centre and get some reduced bedding to fill the gaps .... har har har. I was stunned at the prices. £10 for 6 little petunias. And they only had two trays. I returned home determined to take cuttings of everything possible. Too late for this party but I hope there'll be no gaps to fill next summer. Being my own nursery!

The allotment is a mess. June was so dry I was afraid of drought. But it appears to have rained every day we were gone. Three weeks away and the courgettes have disappeared completely (slugs and snails), the squash have shrivelled, the blueberries are over and rotted, the cucumbers have been lost under the nasturtiums. The Hollyhocks and chicory flowers have fallen all over everything. Nothing to harvest except runner beans and bolted lettuce. But the greengage is loaded and not yet ripe. Hooray.

I have been enjoying this old fashioned English summer although it has not been anything like as wet as the south coast. I have been doing a lot of cuttings too Floral. I uncovered a little book I bought years ago - 'Gardens for Free' by Geoff Bryant. Still the best handbook for propagation as it has an extensive list of cuttings - hundreds of them, and really useful stuff regarding seed sowing.

Because space is such an issue, I have been growing really small plants...which are destined for a bunch of hypertufa troughs and raised beds. I have really bad problems with my feet and cannot kneel down at all as I get debilitating and painful foot cramps (my toes scrunch together in unrelenting agony). I cannot squat for very long either, (cos I am not 12 anymore) so I spend a lot of time with my legs apart, bending from the hips to do all the weeding. I am getting really fed up with grovelling at ground level and have decided to build a LOT of raised beds for some tabletop growing (after abandoning a frankly demented idea o build a rockery from scratch)...which is perfec for alpine beds (and removes some of the horrible weed pressure at the allotment).

Seed collecting in full spate - kitchen able permanently covered in chaff and little heaps of seeds.

Hope the wedding goes well -always a celebration. Wishing you sunshine and family happiness.

Will try to make some plants.

I enjoyed visiting a few daylily farms last summer and decided it would be a good idea to start my own. A few were bought and then friends learned of my silliness and a couple dozen more showed up. today a stupid patch of lawn is gone and i have instead wonderful rows of daylilies.

I dont know how successful my farm will be without more property (or customers) but I quite enjoy it.

... fibigea clypeata, linum capitata,, ipomopsis rubra, digitalis sp...

Hey @rosaprimula UK (Cambridge) Z8/9, I thought of you when I spied all these Ipomopsis rubra the other day.

(Probably one in ten survive the winter/spring for me.)

@erasmus_gw Your 'Land of the Free' is beautiful!

My 'trick' for keeping seedlings and potted plants watered in summer is a timer that goes off once a day, there are some that can even do multiple times a day. Connected to drip irrigation distribution tubing, the 1/2" kind, and then 1/4" tubing or specific emitters to each pot or pot saucer. For smaller pots and seedling pots, I buy 14" wide round serving plates that are a 1/4" or 1/2" depth and then have the drip emitter water the saucer and this is great for keeping multiple seedling pots watered. Like bottom watering, except with specific water depth so the plants don't root rot. There are also mister emitters, if needed. I have also repurposed many plastic take out containers and poked a hole or two in the sides so they only hold about 1/4" - 1/2" of water (depending on the pot and plant size that will sit in this) so excess water drips out.

I have pots in different specific locations like on the patio and under shade cloth in the veggie bed, so I actually have two timers for two different areas, that go off daily. The nice thing about this method is I can always add to it or customize it. You could water 100 feet of plant saucers like this from one timer.

If you have animals that eat plastic tubing, you may want to place something around/near the tubing to discourage them.

I thought about having my own nursery then did the math; I would have to make a lot of plants and sell them to make a living. And starting costs aren't cheap. I have friends that love to start plants and either sell them in plant groups or Facebook. The best profits I've seen are for specific plants that niche groups are interested in. There is also eBay, but I don't personally know anyone who sells on eBay or Etsy.

Thank you, Sharon.

I suck at growing from seeds, or do not have the time since the kids came along, so

at least cutting are an option,

it started when I lost a berry shrub and a berry standard plant ("on a stick") to weird, fast wilting

instead of ordering some nice cultivars again I made some cuttings and store them in pots. We have one balcony which has some light but no direct light, perfect

plus I noticed that most of my tall Sedums spawl around right now with the exception of one type which I got from some restaurant, we used to go there at my last work place for the lunch break, I noticed the clear pink color of the flowers and was allowed to dig out a division with a spoon...

so I will propagate this one as well instead of trying to figure out the cultivar and most likely get a different/wrong one one...

oh, and for some reasons the local nurseries never stock the "original" Provence lavender, L. angustifolia Maillette, so, I try a batch of cuttings from those

I used to grow cuttings from alsmost everything under the sun when I studied, alsmost, at least

so lets try again...

I am happy to know I'm not the only one terrible with starting seeds.

Wanted to share my iris sanguinea I grew from seed in 2021.

Repotted

Planted same year late summer

And just took pics now 3 years later. The very front one is the one. There are 4 more in the back, 2 more also from seed and 2 from division. This is so gratifying!

O Thank you, Heruga. I totally agree - utterly gratifying. Have been planting out all the autumn sown plantlets - too many to list. Such a relief when they are no longer under my anxious daily (ahem) 'care'.

Such a relief when they are no longer under my anxious daily (ahem) 'care'.

I know exactly what you mean 'rosa'. Tomorrow I will getrid of my last tomato plant to a family member.