My first two plant clones! I've successfully propagated a red penta cutting and a succulent leaf. These two were pretty easy though. The penta was rooted in plain water and the succulent leaf was just laying peacefully on a pot of soil. The red penta took about 2 weeks to notice some root formation and the succulent about 3-4 weeks to notice a root coming out of the edge where it broke off.
eBay is a good source for just about anything, even live tropical plants shipped to your door. I wanted to find something rare and unusual, and the Dwarf Red Powder Puff plant fit the bill. I've never seen anything like it. It's a drought tolerant flowering shrub that can be maintained in a container or directly planted on landscape. The prolific buds look like clusters of small red berries and they seem to pop the next day into puffy balls. It's a unique flower that attracts butterflies and hummingbirds. I've only had the plant for about a week and it's already blooming like crazy so I think it's a real winner for our garden. It's fun, interesting, and easy to grow!
One hibiscus hybrid I grew from seed, the "Red White Splash", doesn't want to root very well. The leaves quickly wither down and fall off within a few days. I'm experimenting to see if this one will root, so today I setup a new cutting. The cutting is an all green stem tip about 3-4" long. I removed all the lower leaves except the top two. I dipped the end into Rootone and placed the cutting into a mix of Miracle Gro Seed Starting and perlite. I made sure there were 3 nodes buried in the Miracle Gro mix. I covered the cutting with an empty 2 L bottle with the bottom cut out. Just keep the cap screwed in to lock in moisture. The idea is to keep humidity in to prevent moisture loss from the leaves, hence the name Greenhouse Experiment in the title. Also I don't want to cook the plants either so I have to keep the covered cuttings out of direct sunlight.
Here is day one, fresh green stem tip cutting of "Red White Splash" hibiscus hybrid.
This upside down 2 L bottle creates the greenhouse environment.
