Begonia Propagation - Leaf Vein Cuttings

This has to be my favourite method for propagating begonias.  From a single leaf you can end up with a dozen or more plants.  It's a relatively basic method and you only need a few things:

Large leaf
Potting soil (already moist)
Pot (large enough to fit the leaf when laid on the soil surface)
Small knife
Rooting hormone
Plastic material (or similar) to cover the pot

Make sure to take the leaf with some stem.  Then you can get another plant from the stem as well.  Take the knife and slice each of the main veins about 5cm (2") from the stem.  These veins then branch into smaller ones which can also be sliced (but keep the leaf itself intact).  Again I wouldn't have the slices along a vein closer than about 5cm.  Dab each vein slice with some rooting hormone on the bottom of the leaf.

Now push the leaf down onto the surface of the potting soil.  It may not lay flat especially with some of the more ornate varieties.  If this happens you can use small rocks to hold the leaf down.  Now cover the pot with plastic ensuring there is at least 2cm (about 1") of room above the leaf.  Put it a place with bright but indirect light.  Heat will speed the process.

Within a few weeks you should notice what looks like weird mutations growing at each sliced vein.  These will put out leaves and become independent clones on of the original plant.  I usually leave the new plants in the pot until they're reasonable large and look crowded.  Then I split them up into individual pots.

Generally the new plants only put out a few leaves at a time.  I have no idea why, but the ones that I took the photo of seem to have a dozen or more tiny little leaves ready to grow at the same time.  You can see the pot is already filled with roots to the point they have grown up along the surface.

Although this form of propagation is common, many people don't seem to know about it.  Hopefully I've given you something new to try.  Good luck!

Propagating Peperomia

We'll it's taken two-and-a-half months but I finally have a Peperomia plant. I cut the original leaf into these three pieces. They all seem to be firmly rooted but this is the first to send a leaf skyward. It broke the soil surface about 3 days ago. I feel like it took much longer than it should have. I'm in a basement rental which gets relatively cold at night and I'm wondering if the lack of consistent heat may have been part of the problem. Now just to wait for the others! Happy New Years everyone! What better way to start the year than with some new life?

Ficus pumila Cuttings & Calathea Flower

I love Ficus pumila. They have nice dense foliage which grows very quickly with little care. The only problem is that you can never let them dry out. I learned this the hard way with the first plant I purchased after forgetting to water once. It was in an extremely small pot and I should have transplanted it immediately after getting it. Instead I left it in the pot and took some cuttings. Within two weeks it was dead. It doesn't seem these plants ever recover from drying out.

Fortunately the cuttings survived. It seems I still hadn't learned my lesson. All the cuttings rooted and resumed with growth but within another two weeks I'd let two more dry out (in those little peat pockets). I immediately put the remaining three in a plastic container filled with water. They'll stay there until I find room for a permanent home. I'd recommend you always do this with the cuttings and put mature plants in a pot with a self-watering reservoir. If you're prone to letting plants dry out, this is NOT the plant for you.

My Calathea roseopicta 'Medallion' has sent up several flower spikes over the last few weeks. Nothing spectacular but interesting nonetheless.

Question About Cuttings

About six weeks ago I was given some cuttings from Begonia masoniana (Iron Cross), Begonia deciata (Angel's Wing), Pilea mollis, and Peperomia argyreia. For the Iron Cross, I simple sliced all major leaf veins with a knife and sprinkled the cuts with rooting hormone. Then I placed the leaf on the surface of some home-made potting mix and placed the entire thing in a bag. I checked a few days ago and most of the cuts have rooted. I checked the bottom of the pot and there are roots. I'm just wondering when top growth will start.

I placed the Angel's Wing stem in the same mix with a bit of rooting hormone. Again the entire thing was placed in a bag. This was the first to root and has new top growth.

I did basically the same thing with the Pilea and Peperomia however I cut the Peperomia leaf into three pieces. They have all rooted and again the roots have grown to the bottom of the pot.

I'm wondering when I can expect some top growth to start. Six weeks seems longer than usual to me. Any thoughts?

I'm also going to Victoria this afternoon (Capital of British Columbia). I'll be leaving tonight and coming back on Wednesday. I'm hoping I can get some good pictures because it's a really beautiful city.

One more question. This Calathea is located in a bank with low light levels. Is it young, dwarf, or just suffering from chronically low light levels? You have to see it in person. I never thought of Calathea as adorable, but this one really is!

Update: Apparently it's a Maranta leuconeura var. kerchoveana. Thanks to mr_subjunctive!