[PROPAGATION - The act of multiplying or reproducing plants.]
WHY PROPAGATE
 Many people find gardening a fulfilling (if not obsessive) hobby, and propagating your own plants is an economical and rewarding extension of that. If you like to garden, you have a reason to propagate. The most obvious is the monetary savings of producing your own plants, instead of purchasing them. This also applies to replacing them year after year.
At the risk of sounding like President Clinton, let me give you an example. Let's say you want to put in a vegetable garden in the spring. You go to the local garden center and purchase young vegetable plants. You buy tomatos, peppers, cabbage, brocolli, whatever. You pay how much for a pack of veggies? Around here, the going rate is 75 cents a three-pack (25 cents each) for veggies and annuals. If you put in a very big garden, this really starts to add up, but if you start your own from seed, you pay about that same price for an entire packet of 30-50 vegetable seeds. The soil is pennies per pot, depending on what you use, and you can make your own pots, or reuse old ones. You can grow as many as you like for about 10 cents apiece (for veggies, it costs me only 3 cents, but I make my own soil mix and buy pots in bulk at a great savings).
Try applying this same formula in regards to reproducing your perennials, shrubs and trees. The seeds aren't much more expensive, and if you could only purchase one expensive hybrid and make as many more as you wanted from a scrap of foliage or a root snipping, what would your savings be?
There are other reasons as well. First you won't have to buy new plants to replace old ones, you just take a few cuttings. Second, if you can grow a seed, or root a cutting, you are no longer limited to just what plants are available locally, but can grow a much wider variety of plants. Many wonderful garden plants are never available for sale, because they are not easy to mass produce, or they don't look good in pots. Third, you are in total control of the quality of your plants. No nasty chemicals, unless you're foolish enough to use them, no growth hormones or growth regulators, no plants weakened from poor maintenance, no plants so pot bound an earthquake wouldn't shake the roots loose, no pests, no disease, etc. Fourth, you're extras make great gifts, or can bring in a little extra pocket money.
The economical rewards are not the only ones though. Although propagating is not an absolutely essential skill to the gardener, it is a pleasurable extension of that hobby. To me, and to many gardeners, there is as much reward in coaxing a stubborn seed to sprout, or rooting a cutting as there is in any aspect of gardening. And if nothing else, it gives you something to do on those long dreary winter days, when you are dying to play in the dirt, but don't want to be wet and cold.
What makes propagating doubly rewarding is that it's not a difficult skill to master. I have a small nursery here in Kell, and I propagate 95% of the plants we sell. My customers are often amazed at this. I hear comments about how I'm so talented, and "wish I could do that". But, as much as that boosts my ego, the truth is that there isn't a gardener out there that can't do exactly what I do. When I left the military, 8 years ago, I couldn't keep lettuce alive (and it wasn't from lack of trying), but I learned how to grow and propagate and now I do it for a living. When we propagate we are only copying what nature does, but in a more intense and controlled way. All we need do is follow the same simple steps to achieve success.
You can really get to know your plants when you propagate them. You will find that you look at plants more closely and in greater detail than ever before. You will find yourself noticing things about their habits and characteristics and the way they develop from seedlings or cuttings. Propagating will widen your view into the world of your garden, and makes a refreshing change from the often monotonous job of garden maintenance, which all garden owners must perform.
For instance, did you know... that there are several species of plants that propagate themselves vegetatively by producing baby plants on their leaves, or on runners?... the seed pods of some plants explode when the seeds are ripe, throwing them for great distances?...some plants, such as sedums, many succulents, African Violets and Rex Begonias, can be propagated from a leaf, or even a piece of one?... that you could increase your expensive Oriental or Asiatic Lily bulbs simply by breaking off one of the segments (scales) and rooting it?...did you know that you could grow beautiful Dahlias from seed, and overwinter and divide them to make more?
If none of the above arguements for propagation sways you, then perhaps you don't need to learn anything about propagation. But for those of you with an interest or a need to know, let us begin this series by discussing where your first attempt at propagation should take place.
WHERE TO PROPAGATE
I have read many a book on propagation, and nearly without exception have found one basic flaw in all of them. They are written by nurserymen, or horticultural experts, who have all of the modern conveniences the industry allows, and the books are written as if you do too. The problem is that most amatuer gardeners do not have a greenhouse, only a small percentage have a professional cold frame, and few if any have any of the expensive fancy gadgetry that the pros take for granted, such as mist propagation units, $60 apiece horticultural light bulbs, or heating mats. If we had the money to throw away on that, we probably wouldn't bother to propagate our plants, we'd hire a gardener to do it for us while we sat in the garden enjoying the view.
For almost all of the plant subjects you may want to try to propagate, you will not need a greenhouse at all. As a greenhouse is a luxury for most gardeners, the best answer is usually a cold frame. The cold frame provides a moist humid warm protected environment that is ideal for propagating. The only real difference between a cold frame and a simple greenhouse is that you don't have to expose yourself to the elements while working in it. The cold frame in fact, has an advantage over the greenhouse as it is easy to keep warm or cool and can be moved easily if need be.
A cold frame is nothing more than a small structure with four walls - the back wall usually higher than the front and the sides sloping - and a clear roof - such as a couple of old windows or a wooden frame covered with plastic. There are variations of course. My first coldframe consisted of a square made of straw bales and plastic sheeting draped over the top and tucked under the straw. An old packing blanket served as insulation during very cold periods. This served me quite well for several years until my husband built me a couple of nice wooden ones. A great simple cold frame can be constructed by looping polyethelene plastic over wires bent in a U and stuck into the ground.
I must here warn you against the use of window glass if you have young children. My youngest son climbed on my one and only glass cold frame and fell through it. He was miraculously uninjured, but my heart will never be the same and I will never again own a glass cold frame.
It is best to position the frame under the shade of a tree. If the frame must be in the sun, an old curtain, sheet or shade cloth can be used to shade out the harsh burning rays of the sun. Be sure to put a mulch of sand or small rock on the floor. This will help keep bugs out and roots in the pots where they belong. It also reduces the growth of harmful fungus and mold. Some gardeners like to heat the frame by digging out the area under the frame and filling it with fresh manure, covered by sand and burlap, but I tried that and found that my cuttings and seedlings never got attended too for some strange reason. I usually only heat mine if it is really cold, and then I use a couple of incandescent light bulbs on an extension cord to keep it above freezing inside, and an old blanket over them to hold in heat.
Some of the new purchased cold frames come complete with heaters, fans automatic vents and heating cables, but these are all luxury items and I've never used any of them. Save your money for the plants and seeds your success at propagating will tempt you to buy. In the cold frame, flats of cuttings or pots of seeds may be stood directly on the sand surface until such time as they are ready to be exposed to the elements. Even if you do your propagating in the house, it is almost essential to have some sort of cold frame in which to harden off seedlings and cuttings before placing them in the garden, but keep in mind my first one made of straw and plastic. A cold frame doesn't have to be fancy. (Don't ever tell my husband, but the only thing that works better about the ones I have now is that they look nicer and they don't drop bits of straw into my flats). If I had to choose between giving up my greenhouse or my cold frames, there would be no contest. Every gardener is different, but I find cold frames essential for successful propagating.
As I mention above, it is quite possible to propagate successfully in the warmth and comfort of your home. I still start many seeds and cuttings indoors, even though I have a both a greenhouse and cold frames. I find that in the fall and winter, when I do most of my cuttings and seeds, it is easier to regulate the temperature indoors. If you choose to propagate in the house, I would highly recommend the use of fluorescent lights. No need to get fancy. For propagation purposes, a cheap fixture from the local discount store and plain old shop lights will do just fine. There is no need for expensive horticultural lighting just to get plants started inside, as long as you are not planning on keeping them there for an extended length of time.
Find a place in the home though that you will not mind the mess in. I use the basement, but my girlfriend propagates in a corner of the kitchen and cleans up afterword. I do not recommend the use of window sills. Usually, the light is variable and barely adequate at best, and temperatures will swing extremely both ways near the glass, especially in the winter.
If you are doing cuttings, you will also probably need to find a method of regulating the humidity around the plant material. Most homes are too dry indoors for this. This can be accomplished very simply by draping plastic over a piece of wire hung above the pots, by individually wrapping pots with plastic bags or by doming the pots with a plastic lid. (The round dome of a 2 litre coke bottle makes a wonderful indoor greenhouse for a single 4" round pot and if you can still find them, the bottom of the bottle makes an excellent seedling pot). It is best if the plastic does not touch the plant material directly as condensation will collect there providing a perfect environment for fungus and mold to grow. If you use my method of seed starting, which we'll get into later, humidity isn't a problem.
Other forms of propagation, such as grafting, hardwood cuttings, and layering are done out of doors, directly in the garden or nursery rows, and we will discuss them individually later.
Give it some thought. Next week we will continue our adventures here by learning about the basic tools required. (Don't worry, you own 99% of it already, I guarantee it). And in the following weeks we will cover all the basic techniques, and if anyone is interested, some history.
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