Propagating Houseplants by Leaf Cuttings
In the garden we propagate by layering by bending a branch or bough of a low growing tree or shrub until it touches the soil. Where it touches we make a slit or crack and keep this portion in close contact with the soil. New roots appear at this point and once the young plant is growing away well it is separated from its parent.
Many of our house plants are not suited to this means of propagation simply because of their growing habit or because it is a difficult and untidy matter to clutter up the house with extra pots of soil. But some, such as ivies and other vines, are not only well suited to this method or propagation but seem actively to seek it by putting out little root hairs into the air, almost looking for moist soil in which to bury themselves. Three of my Rhoicissus have been grown this way, one is in a willow pattern pitcher, one in a china wash basin and the third in a two-gallon pickle jar!
A considerably more artificial derivation of the layering process is known as air layering. It is particularly useful for the following reason. Many plants such as the rubber plant gradually lose their lower leaves so we are left with a long, naked stem with a tuft of foliage at the top. This is both hideous and a demonstration of our inability to grow the plant properly. If we can take the tuft at the top and make a new plant from it, then we can begin again.
Actually it is possible merely to cut off the green and growing tuft at the top of the plant and to strike this as a cutting, but high soil temperatures and humidity are required, so we can use instead the following simpler method.
The begonia leaf can be cut into several sections and so long as each cut has been made to sever one of the prominent veins, roots will grow from this part. The spear like Sanscvieria can be cut into two inch sections. Each of the sections, from begonia or sansevieria, should be planted with the end originally nearest the stem or base into the soil.
The new plant (for that is what it is) can then be cut away from the naked stem below and potted up in the usual manner.
