Propagate Bougainvillea
One of the most common questions in tropical plant nurseries concerns the propagation of bougainvillea. Most people have tried dozens of times only to end up with rotted cuttings to show for their efforts. Professional nursery people do not often answer this question, as in truth, it is so easy to do.
Contents
Steps
Cutting the Stem from the Parent Plant
- Prune your plant to get your cuttings. Cut back an older bougainvillea as you would in normal care of this tropical to semi-tropical plant.
- Remove excess leaves and trim. Certain parts will not grow or take root, so you clean them up.
- Discard any green, more recent growth. This will not root.
- Remove 50% of any leaves remaining on the piece to root.
- Cut the older woody sections into 2-4” pieces.
- Prepare and treat the nodes. Nodes are where roots are most likely to form, so you should cut and treat the nodes to speed growth/propagation.
- Cut the bottom of each piece where a node is, and cut on an angle so that it is at least slightly pointed.
- Nodes show up as bumps or lumps on the old wood.
- These are the areas in which natural plant growth hormones are at their highest concentration.
- Wet with water the bottom of each piece, and dip lightly in a rooting hormone, also known as a rooting acid.
- Plant hormone is acidic which is why some suppliers call it a rooting acid.
- Growth hormone for plants may be liquid or a powder, and most often contain and antifungal ingredient to deter rotting at the base where roots are to start.
Planting the Cutting
- Wet the soil and insert the cutting. Wet thoroughly the rooting soil (any decent soil will do) before inserting at an angle the small, prepared cuttings.
- Avoid planting them upright at a ninety degree angle. A forty five degree angle will assist in more of the cutting actually rooting.
- Keep it moist and shady. Keep the soil moist to muddy for the duration of the rooting process and keep in 60-70% shade.
- Wait for it to sprout. Sprouting on the cutting will happen over time, perhaps eight to ten weeks.
- Leave the cuttings until four to six leaves have appeared. Be careful not to disturb until the roots are ready. Leaves will start to appear, but that does not mean the roots are ready to go.
- Avoid removing cuttings when the first leaves appear. Growth in leaves simply means the rooting process is near to happening, not that they have already rooted.
- Avoid pulling up cuttings to check on root growth, and this is disturbing to root growth and often, the cutting will die.
- Leave the cuttings alone once they are set in the soil. Most people inhibit rooting by constantly checking to see what is going on.
Transplanting the New Cuttings into Their Own Pots
- Know when the cuttings are ready. Remove the cuttings after three months, and after shoots with four to six leaves have grown.
- Seeing significant roots means it is time to put into separate small plastic pots, and to begin moving them slowly from mostly shady towards the sun.
- Do the three stage process to full sun. You need to do this step by step to keep the plants happy.
- Leave them in each area with more sun for one week. This is called "hardening off" in tropical areas.
- Following the move into full sun, wait one week and then plan on how or where you are going to plant them.
- Once in a pot or ground, provide extra water for a period of one month so that a taproot can grow more deeply.
- Establish the new plants in their new home. The plants are now their own plants, and are adapting.
- Reduce extra water after one month so they can acclimate to the new "home".
- Once fully established, it takes a bit of stress (roots getting bound, fluctuations in available water) to precipitate flowering.
- Flowering is NOT the vibrant color we notice, it is the insignificant white flower at the end of these brilliantly colored stems that are actually the flower.
Using Your Great New Bougainvilleas
- Give those you do not need as great gifts, sell to a nursery or at a tag sale
- Rooting, if done according to the steps above, will yield many more plants than you actually need, so be creative in how to gift or sell the rest.
- Some people find propagating bougainvillea to be a great way of supplementing their income.
Tips
- Use bougainvillea as stand alone statement plants, to grow along fence lines, or to hold soil during heavy rains on a hillside.
- Aging causes these plants to be hardy to drought and to tolerate even the poorest soil. As such, they make great accents where other tropical plants may not grow.
- Keeping them in pots helps to keep the plants from growing too fast or too large. In pots, they are amenable to near bonsai type clipping, only adding to the interest in these wonderful plants.
- Cut the tips of each plant after they have achieved six t eight inches of growth. This will allow for more energy to be focused on root production, and create sturdier bases for the plants.
- Rooting of the subspecies of bougainvillea varies a bit from one to another. The steps are the same, but some root much more quickly and others, very slowly.
Warnings
- Wear gloves when cutting the initial shoots for making cuttings. After flowering, most form very touch and sharp pseudo-thorns.
- Use latex or other gloves when using rooting powder or liquid. There have been some correlations between the hormone and atypical cell growth in human beings.
Things You'll Need
- Rooting hormone.
- Hardwood bougainvillea cuttings.
- Pan or tray to set the sections for rooting purposes.
- If you do not have any shade, purchase a piece of "shade cloth" to tent over the newly planted cuttings.
- Both gardener's gloves and latex or rubber gloves.
- Small, 3-6" plastic pots to transplant newly rooted plants.
- Very sharp gardening snips to make clean cuts for your pieces to root.
