As April focuses on gardening with kids, it makes me think about the fun my sisters and I have with houseplants and perennials. I come from a long line of gardeners, some from necessity, some for the beauty and healing qualities of gardening.
My maternal grandmother was an avid gardener and had a split rail fence with beautiful dark pink climbing roses covering it. She also had a large rock garden on the side of her house as well as houseplants in her living room. Through the years she shared plants with cousins and siblings.
While not an outdoor gardener, my mother loved houseplants (as the second oldest of seven children she did a lot of weeding in the veggie garden and never wanted one of her own) and had many that were quite interesting to me. One I just loved she called the Baby Dropper (a.k.a. Mother of Thousands), a succulent that reproduced by growing “babies” on the edges of their leaves. We had so many of these because who can throw out a living plant? She also had hoyas, peperomias and piggyback plants, which were also great reproducers, growing small plants in the middle of the leaf.
As I became more interested in houseplants, Mom and I would scour the stores to see what new plants they had. We would grow and propagate them to share with others. What a feeling it is to take a cutting and make a whole new plant!
Some easy ways to share gardening with your children can be as simple as getting a Baby Dropper (Kalanchoe daigremontiana) and watching new sprouts appear. These can be planted and the whole process starts again. You may want to make sure you have an outlet for all these plants – it’s kind of like zucchini in summer. You’ll have neighbors locking their doors so you can’t sneak them onto their windowsills. Spider plants (Chlorophytum comosum) also reproduce on their own, with plantlets coming off a long stem. Spider plants are very tolerant of inconsistent growing conditions which make them great plants for youngsters to grow.
If you find your child’s interest has been sparked by propagating these plants, you may want to try rooting some cuttings. Some of the easier plants to root are German or Swedish ivy, Christmas or Thanksgiving cactus and Jade plants.
With the ivy, you can either put the cutting in water or directly into soil (direct stick). Choose a stem that has four to five leaves on it. Cut near the base of the plant, close to the node. Remove two to three bottom leaves from the cutting.
If you choose the water method, you’ll want to change the water regularly so algae and bacteria don’t grow. Once you see the roots appear, you can plant in a pot, being careful not to damage the roots when planting.
For the direct stick method, push the cutting into the soil so at least one or two nodes are covered. Keeping the water moist will keep the cutting from wilting. If it does wilt, you can mist it several times a day or place a clear plastic bag over the whole pot (make sure the bag is not resting on the cutting). This will help keep the moisture level higher around the cutting.
You can also put Christmas or Thanksgiving cactus in water, but the easiest way to do it is putting them right in soil. The roots will form quickly and you’ll have a new growth in no time. Be careful not to choose too big of a pot to start them in as the wet soil can rot the cuttings.
Jade plants are a bit different to root, but still easy, as they are succulents and need time to form a callous. Cut off a five- to six-inch piece and let it sit out for a few days so the end callouses over. Then put it in the soil far enough to hold it in place. The roots will form from the callous, but also from any nodes on the stem.
When our boys were younger they grew sensitive plants (Mimosa pudica) from seed. These neat little plants fold up their leaves when touched. The boys loved them. I brought one home for our granddaughter two years ago. She too thought it was wonderful. With the help of her parents, it is still alive. They were even able to start some of the seeds it produced.
Other plants that can be grown and divided are amaryllis and paperwhites. Both of these provide a beautiful show of flowers in the winter. In the southern climes (hardiness zone 8 and above) they can be planted outdoors, but in zones below 8, they’ll need to be kept indoors. Some people grow these just for one blooming season, but with the right care, both plants can be kept to bloom year after year.
Amaryllis (Hippeastrum) can be purchased either already potted or ready to pot. They are prized for the big showy flowers that come up on a thick, leafless stalk, typically producing four flowers on each stalk. Bulbs should be planted so the top third of the bulb is above the soil.
Paperwhites are in the Narcissus family and send up stems with multiple flowers. They are normally grown without soil, so use a shallow dish filled with two to three inches of pebbles or glass beads. Place bulbs in so the tops of the bulbs are even with the rim of the pot and add more stones as needed to support them. Grouping five or more bulbs per pot looks best. Paperwhites can be planted in succession to give you flowers throughout winter.
Division of both of these plants is as simple as pulling off the bulblets that form as the bulb matures.
Growing these two bulbs can be a really fun project with children as they are fast growing, producing flowers within four to six weeks. What a sense of accomplishment to see flowers in winter!
Although we live in different states, my sisters and I still swap plants, pore over catalogs and have long talks about what cuttings we are rooting, how things are blooming and what will be flowering next. We are lucky enough to have some of the dwarf iris my grandmother grew in her rock garden all those years ago. It’s certainly a bright spot in my day when I see them blooming.
