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Gardening Skills

November 11th, 2015

If you’re an avid gardening, learning to propagate plants through a variety of methods is an important skill to cultivate. Not only will you be able to get plants for free, you can also obtain plants that can be difficult to find in nurseries and greenhouses. By far the easiest way to propagate is through cuttings rooted in water. Some plants root very easily with this method, ivy is a great one to start with.
kenilworth ivy 2
I had Kenilworth Ivy growing in my garden in Ohio and really loved it. It’s a valuable plant to have if you have rock walls, it scrambles along the walls filling in the pockets between the stones, blooming beautifully with tiny purple blooms.
kenilworth ivy 2
My first sighting of this ivy was at Longwood Gardens many years ago. At that time, I didn’t know what it was called, but I remembered it for years. One day I spotted it at a local greenhouse and purchased a plant. When we moved from Ohio, I didn’t bring a cutting with me and I’ve been missing it in my garden ever since.
kenilworth ivy 1
Lucky me, I got a cutting about a month ago and rooted it in water. I planted it in the potager under a cloche for winter protection. I’m looking forwarding to propagating more plants next summer and tucking them in the nooks and crannies of all of my rock walls. I’m so thankful I found this beauty again, and even more thankful I didn’t have to pay a penny for it!

Have you learned how to propagate plants? What’s your favorite propagation method?

7 Comments to “Gardening Skills”
  1. Christine on November 11, 2015 at 6:18 am

    Hello, I wanted to say that reading your posts is something I really look forward to each day, especially as your climate seems fairly similar to mine although we are continents apart (I live in a mountainous region of France). I love this little plant too and I thought you might like to know that it has a lovely and evocative name in French, ‘Ruine-de-Rome’ which translates as ‘Ruin of Rome’ as indeed it tends to colonise ancient ruins. I didn’t know its American name until reading your post today.

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    • PennyAshevilleNC on November 12, 2015 at 9:22 am

      Wonderful tidbit to share! How interesting :)

      Reply to PennyAshevilleNC's comment

  2. Laura @ Raise Your Garden on November 11, 2015 at 8:43 am

    I love propagating plants ~ just like you said….saves so much $$$. Succulents are my favorite plant to propagate and it certainly requires nothing fancy. I just break off a piece and stick it into another pot and off it goes. Recently, I’ve been cling and I can’t believe how much money I’ve saved!!! At first, the machine seemed pricy but worth every penny.

    Reply to Laura @ Raise Your Garden's comment

    • Kate on November 12, 2015 at 5:42 pm

      It really is amazing how easy it is! Unfortunately it’s also a good way to end up with wayyy too many plants… haha.

      Reply to Kate's comment

  3. PennyAshevilleNC on November 11, 2015 at 11:57 am

    I love rooting plants myself. Right now, I am trying to propagate sage from my bush/plant. It got really dry and sad and most of it died away. I hope to start a new plant inside this winter and move it out in the spring.

    I love that ivy- we have creeping raspberry in some areas as ground cover.

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  4. Juliette Lanvers on November 12, 2015 at 11:07 am

    I too would like to become a good propagator, especially of boxwood.
    A child broke some branches of a new rose bush last spring and I was able to root them in cowpots. So many things would be fun to have around though, scented geraniums come to mind.
    juju

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  5. Chris on November 12, 2015 at 3:43 pm

    I too love Kenilworth ivy and it grows everywhere here…so much so that a lot of people pull it out and toss it as it can quite take over. Not me, I let it grow wherever it wants to. I even having it spilling out of hanging baskets, potted plants, in my rock wall, etc. etc. It’s tiny teeny flowers are so beautiful!
    And now it’s nice to know it’s French name and since I’m Italian, I love it even more! :)
    I love to propagate succulents too…so easy!

    Reply to Chris's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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