My hairdresser loves plants and her studio is starting to feel like a jungle which works for me. She has this one plant I’ve always admired and she offered to get me one, but they’ve been sold out every time she goes to market. On a recent visit I asked her to cut me a piece off of one of hers and I’d propagate it.

She sliced off a limb from her plant and handed it to me with one of those smiles you’d expect from your parent, that, “I’m proud of you”, smile. A young woman standing nearby asked, “Isn’t that hard?” I responded with “Nope, and if I can do it, so can you.”

Start by finding a plant you love, or a few favorites, depending on your budget and learn how to care for them. The Shrimp plant and the Bougainvillea have been tried and true favorites for years. The Shrimp plant is easy to propagate, but the Bougainvillea, takes more time to root, so if you need a lesson in patience, that’s your plant.

Save your jars. I buy a dairy-free yogurt that comes in a little, glass jar and an instant coffee jar works well too. Whenever I trim my plants, I collect the cuttings in a basket and bring them inside. It’s soothing to remove the leaves from half of the stem and drop it in the glass jar. Once the jar is full, fill it with water and place it near a sunny window.

Our one job at this point is to make sure the jar doesn’t empty of water. I keep this small, watering vessel nearby to remind me to check the jars.

I let the roots grow for as long as I can stand it, knowing the longer the roots, the healthier the plant. Coleus is easy to propagate and roots quickly. When I accidently break a stem off a plant, I clean the stem of leaves and stick it in water. I’ve created some interesting planters by combining various stems of propagation.

The two pictured below were born through propagation. The one on the right is the cutting from my hairdresser and a fast grower, but both could be propagated again. We’ll always have another version of our favorite plant when we propagate.

Feature Photo by Virginia Marinova on Unsplash