HOME Mouse Click or Arrows for Next Slide Plant of Month Index PHGSC’s Operation Propagation Oct 08 Year-round propagation for members and Plant Sale Mary Eisenhour

HOME Mouse Click or Arrows for Next Slide Plant of Month Index Steps to Year-round Propagation Oct 08 Preparing for our May plant sale is a year-round activity. This monthly update offers ideas on what to propagate during the current season. Separate bulb, tuber and rhizome plants after they’ve died back. Replant those you want to keep, and pot up the others for the sale. Bulbs can be sold next spring without being potted. Store them over the winter in mesh bags or old nylon stockings so they get air.

HOME Mouse Click or Arrows for Next Slide Plant of Month Index Steps to Year-round Propagation Oct 08 (cont.) Bloom color is important to our customers, so remember to include that when labeling the plants you are propagating or bulbs you are storing. Roses sell well, but many varieties hold patents that prohibit resale from cuttings. You may dig up and pot to sell any rose plants you no longer want. Geraniums and pelargoniums attract buyers if they are large and have robust blooms. Now is the time to make those cuttings and get them into pots.

HOME Mouse Click or Arrows for Next Slide Plant of Month Index Steps to Year-round Propagation Oct 08 (cont.) Cuttings to propagate should be made now, so the plants are large enough to sell in May, after a winter of growth under at least minimal protection. Milkweed and other native seeds can be planted outside now, so they have the winter to germinate for sprouting in spring. Holidays are coming, and we typically donate houseplants to homebound hospice patients in December. Start now to pot up a few plants. Not able to do much for the sale? Try propagating just a dozen or two plants that are easy for you, particularly any that are drought tolerant. For tips, go online and Google “plant propagation,” or get the book, Making More Plants: The Science, Art, and Joy of Propagation by Ken Druse.