Grow your own plant passion
Get out your shears and gardening shoes instead of your dollars and cents, writes Mikaela Wilkes.
Within one minute of an Auckland plant grower opening up an Instagram giveaway this week, the post had 5000 comments. Just 50 plants are up for grabs each day in the contest. So if you’re one of the thousands of people who missed out or weren’t eligible because you live outside of Auckland, we have some good news – and perhaps a helpful reminder.
This isn’t like the time that latest Kmart trend went out of stock. You can’t cut a piece of your mate’s rattan chair, pop it in water, and wait a month for it to turn into a mini-replica (sadly).
But you can do that with a monstera (swiss cheese plant). All you need is the aforementioned friend or neighbour, a little know-how, and a sharp pair of scissors.
‘‘Propagation is one of the best and cheapest ways to add to your collection of indoor plants, especially uncommon species that might be hard to find in the garden centre. It’s also a hugely rewarding process, watching that new plant emerge from a piece of leaf, stem or seed,’’ says NZ Gardener writer Carol Bucknell.
NZ Gardener editor Jo McCarroll (and guru of all things green and leafy), assures me it isn’t very hard, even for total newbies like myself.
‘‘It is pretty easy and fun to propagate plants. You just need access to the plant material, so it’s a good idea to have lots of friends who are also passionate about plants because then you can share,’’ she says.
But where do I cut it? Do I leave my cutting in water or soil afterwards? And, how do I know it’s working?
Plants, like people, are all different, so I need to take a look at what plant species I’ve got in my backyard (or my friend’s) that I want to grow, then do some light reading.
‘‘Quite a lot of indoor plants can be propagated by a leaf cutting,’’ McCarroll tells me.
‘‘If you just take a healthy leaf of a watermelon peperomia (a popular house plant), or African violet – use a clean and sharp knife to cut the leaf in half horizontally and dip the vein side into rooting hormone (if you have it). Insert it vein side down into a pot or tray of moist seed raising mix.’’
There should be roots from the leaf vein in a month or so.
McCarroll usually keeps the pot inside a plastic bag that’s three quarters closed, ‘‘and that works as a mini hot house, just to keep it warm and keep the humidity up around it’’.
With succulents, it’s even easier.
‘‘With lots you can take a whole leaf off and let it dry out for a few days. Then just push it stem-end into either a cactus and succulent potting mix, or seed-raising mix would be OK.
‘‘That should root in a couple of months,’’ McCarroll says.
Other types of cactus, including aloe vera, develop what’s called ‘‘pups’’ instead. These are new baby plants around the base of the original.
‘‘You can just remove those from the mother plant when they form their own roots and plant them’’.
The easiest way to get your hands on some free plants is to dig into your own backyard and through your local plant lovers community, whether that’s on Facebook, at a Sunday market, or a specialist plant society.
Find a person with the plant you’re coveting and ask them if you can take a cutting. Or, propagate some new plants from one you already have, and swap them online.
‘‘There’s a very active network of plant swappers online,’’ McCarroll says, ‘‘but you need something to swap.’’
OK. Where do I find these plant people? Auckland community hub, Plant Me, launched under lockdown last month as a one-stop-shop for home gardeners to buy, sell, gift and swap locally.
‘‘Whether to a friend, a community garden, a school project or a little old lady down the road, we want to support incredible community generosity that we see all the time around Aotearoa,’’ they say.
Cool Plant Group on Facebook is mostly Wellington-based, and often advertises local markets for individuals to trade their wares.
‘‘If you’re interested in plants, I would really encourage people to get off the screen as well,’’ McCarroll says.
‘‘Consider joining your local garden club because then there’ll be people and plants.’’
I have my eye on a jungle-like monstera over our neighbour’s side of the fence to start with.
It’s in a wee gully, nowhere near their house, but McCarroll is firm about always seeking permission.
‘‘I think gardeners are amazingly generous. But don’t assume their generosity by taking cuttings, or plant material without asking,’’ she says.
The same goes for botanic gardens and public parks, whose plants are often so pillaged for cuttings that the mother plants die.