Propagating Plants: How to Create New Plants for Free

by Alan Toogood

Overview

Are you interested in growing your own plants from scratch? This reference book will teach you how to propagate virtually every type of plant.

If you're a thrifty gardener who wants more plants for free, then this book is perfect for you! From fruit trees and ornamental shrubs to exotic orchids and succulents, get all the info you'll need to propagate plants at your fingertips.


Discover the experts' secrets to perfecting plant propagation with this easy-to-follow gardening manual. A horticulturist's delight, this new edition features more than 1,800 detailed illustrations and photos that show both practical step-by-step gardening techniques and the plants themselves.

How long do your seedlings need to germinate? What makes a healthy stem cutting? How do you know what type of rootstock to use when grafting plants? Find out the answer to these questions and more in the most comprehensive guide to propagating plants ever published.

From palms and roses to culinary herbs and conifers, each chapter contains popular and botanically interesting plant groups. Explore the modes of propagation that are unique to the featured plants. Learn about their characteristic ways of reproduction and how these are exploited in various techniques. The techniques are fully illustrated with step-by-step photographs and explanatory artworks. The plants' special needs are discussed, with expert tips on how to achieve success.
This gardening book is crammed with hundreds of step-by-step tutorials and clear advice, ranging from straightforward and simple to more in-depth. The rating system in the plant-by-plant A-Z dictionaries provides you with a quick reference to the relative ease or difficulty of each method of propagation.

Fill Your Garden with Beautiful Plants for Next-To-Nothing

Plant propagation is a fun, rewarding and inexpensive way to add shrubs to your garden or multiply your collection of houseplants. This book helps you successfully reach your goals while steering you clear of common mistakes. It's an indispensable reference book for every propagator's bookshelf.

Use this comprehensive gardening guide to:

Find out how to propagate more than 1,500 garden plants.

A-Z dictionaries of different genera of plants, like perennials, vegetables, or bulbous plants.

Follow the visual step-by-step guides and authoritative advice on cutting, layering, sowing, grafting, and more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781465480125
Publisher:	DK
Publication date:	05/07/2019
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	260,819
Product dimensions:	7.70(w) x 10.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Editor-in-Chief Alan Toogood is an experienced horticulturalist. Having trained at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew,
he went on to study at the Royal Horticultural Society's Garden at Wisley, Surrey. He works as a freelance writer and journalist, writing for such magazines as Gardener's Chronicle, Amateur Gardening, RHS's own magazine The Garden, and Greenhouse, of which he was the Editor for many years.

With a wealth of expertise behind them, other contributors to this book include the herb expert Jekka McVicar, vice-president of the RHS Council and president of the Herb Society, known for her organic herb garden in Gloucestershire; renowned orchid expert Wilma Rittershausen; John Mattock, whose family boasts a 175-year history of rose growing; and recently retired executive vice-president of the RHS, Jim Gardiner.

The 2019 edition of the book will be revised by Julian Shaw, who worked on DK's previous gardening title RHS A-Z of Garden Plants.

Table of Contents

How to use this book 6

Introduction 8

Learning from Nature 10

Propagation in the Past 12

Modem Propagation 14

Sexual Increase of Plants 16

Vegetative Propagation 22

Tools and Equipment 28

Soils and Growing Media 32

Propagation in Different Climates 36

The Propagation Environment 38

Plant Problems 46

Garden Trees 48

Taking Cuttings 50

Sowing Seeds 53

Grafting and Budding 56

Layering 64

Palms 65

Cycads 68

Conifers 70

A-Z of Garden Trees 74

Shrubs and Climbing Plants 92

Taking Cuttings 94

Division 101

Sowing Seeds 102

Layering 105

Grafting 108

Heaths and Heathers 110

Roses 112

A-Z of Shrubs and Climbing Plants 118

Perennials 146

Division 148

Sowing Seeds 151

Taking Cuttings 154

Ferns 159

Alpine Plants 164

Water Garden Plants 168

Bromeliads 172

Ornamental Grasses 175

Orchids 178

A-Z of Perennials 186

Annuals and Biennials 214

Sowing Seeds 216

A-Z of Annuals and Biennials 220

Cacti and Other Succulents 230

Sowing Seeds 232

Division 234

Taking Cuttings 236

Grafting 239

A-Z of Cacti and Other Succulents 242

Bulbous Plants 252

Division 254

Sowing Seeds 256

Scaling and Chipping 258

A-Z of Bulbous Plants 260

Vegetables 280

Sowing Seeds 282

Culinary Herbs 287

A-Z of Vegetables 292

Glossary 310

Index 311

Acknowledgments 320