“Do you still plan to have a class?,” questioned Joy on my cell phone. “It’s raining here in Danbury.”
That heads-up caused me to move my setup for my propagation class that had been ready since 10:30 in the morning from the patio to the garage quickly.
Luckily, it didn’t take that much time and everything was ready for clients 15 minutes later.
Moving into my garage definitely changes the ambiance of my class, though many clients were impressed that my garage was tidy and empty enough to hold my class.
“I haven’t seen my garage empty of stuff for 20 years,” said Linda.
“When you are propagating plants, there are three different types of mediums you can use as soil: perlite, lite growing mix and regular potting soil. Each has its own use depending upon what you are planting,” I say.
I then pointed out a bunch of different plants I had brought by to propagate: coleus, six different mints, rose bush cuttings, and hydrangea cuttings.
“You can also go around my yard and take clippings of anything you want,” I added.
We then went through what needs to be done to ensure that a cutting or transplant will thrive. Some plants like mints need little help and will root in water, perlite or a lite growing mix with no help whatsoever. Others, like a hydrangea or rose cutting needs to have rooting hormone applied and be started in perlite to ensure a positive result.
“But the most important thing you need to do is to ensure that your plantings stay moist and to do that create a tent (with a plastic bag) around them to hold in the humidity. If you do that you will more likely succeed than fail.”
My clients nodded their heads and started to cut and propagate all the plants (and then some) that I had provided. All left with a full tray of babies.
