nearly free plants and shrubs

[Boz86]

You can grow new plants from existing ones with rooting and air layering with just a few materials and a knife.

Rooting: http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/CoopExt/4DMG/Trees/propagat.htm

Layering: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/hil/hil-8701.html

Air layering video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eozrB950FFc

Of course there's always seeds. I just transplanted a bunch of oak seedlings that popped up around my mature oak trees this spring. Got one new tree from the air layering method.

This is all old hat to gardeners but may be helpful for those of us who are less experienced.

[sheepstache]

Nice!  I do layering to create ferns for friends but didn't know the name.

[Milspecstache]

I've been trying this since last summer:

Last summer I cut clippings off of vines that needed pruning and they later died because they already had leaves that were rapidly losing moisture to the hot days.  I am too cheap to buy a mister.

This winter I tried again, with clippings of blueberry bushes, peach trees, and grape vines.  I dipped them in rooting hormone and placed them in small newspaper pots with peat moss.  It has been several months and most appear to be still alive.  I do water them daily still.

[Boz86]

A couple of rose plants look like they made it through the winter after rooting.

Ironically, after a lot of tries, not all of the successful, it looks like I created a new arbor vitae by accident. When we moved a grown own one of the branches got buried next to it and it's still green.

[Milspecstache]

Ironic, I just ordered 50 seedlings of Green Giant Arborvitae to give my place a little more privacy.  Somewhat worried that my property doesn't drain well enough but I desperately need some blockage from the road.

[geekette]

I "air layer" azaleas by weighing down a low branch with a convenient rock or brick.

[Jamesqf]

Whether you can do this successfully depends on the particular plant.  Some are dead easy; others are almost impossible.  I'd suggest a reference like the AHS manual "Plant Propagation", Ed. Alan Toogood.  Or search for online references.

Another issue is rootstock.  Most fruit trees and modern roses are grafted on to various rootstocks, and may not do well on their own roots.  Or, in the case of fruit trees, may grow inconveniently large.

Old garden roses, OTOH, are usually fairly easy to start from cuttings.

[GertieMcFuzz]

My husband has had good luck with a 100+ year old snowball/hydrangea tree using root hormone. His grandmother was a ridiculous green thumb. She would go for walks and pick plants, bring them home, and they would grow. One was a white snowball/hydrangea that she planted in front of her house... it grew into a full tree. When the house was sold a few years ago my husband took about 20 clippings and was able to get a few of them to grow. We have one that he is, very slowly, training into a tree in front of our house :)