So that you’re concerned about Aeonium propagation, the relatively uncommon genus of crops hailing from the Canary Islands.
Succulent Aeonium crops typically resemble shrubs or bushes, however their declare to fame is their uncommon foliage.
Not like your pothos, the leaves of aeoniums aren’t massive and flat.
As a substitute, they’re small, barely puffy (to retailer water and vitamins), and have a behavior of rising in tight rosettes that make them look extra like rose or gardenia blooms than leaf clusters.
These enticing crops can turn out to be relatively costly, relying on the species you need and availability.
As a substitute of shopping for extra of the identical species, why not propagate the Aeoniums you have already got?
Propagating Aeonium
With over 35 identified species of aeonium, it’s no shock that propagation can differ barely.
Right here’s all you have to know for efficiently cultivating each the branching and nonbranching species.
Propagating By way of Division (Branching Species)
Maybe the best methodology of propagation, it’s solely attainable to take cuttings from branching species.
Ensure you have some sharp, sterile shears readily available.
Search for sections which have a leaf rosette and make your minimize.
For bigger, tree-like species, the cuttings ought to be 5 to six” inches lengthy, whereas cuttings for smaller shrubs could be a tiny ½” inch lengthy.
Place your cuttings in a spot with good shade to scab over, often 3 to 7 days, relying on how thick the department is.
As soon as your cuttings are calloused over, fill a small, well-draining pot or nursery container with an equal mixture of perlite and both cactus or succulent potting combine for every chopping.
You need the pot to be sufficiently small to finest match the chopping.
Plant your cuttings, burying them simply deep sufficient to face on their very own.
Place the container in shiny, oblique mild and provides it a lightweight watering as soon as per week.
After about 3 to 4 weeks, your new aeoniums can have developed sturdy sufficient roots to deal with common watering.
At this level, water liberally and permit the soil to dry to the contact two inches down earlier than following the conventional watering routine for that species.
Aeonium Varieties to Develop and Accumulate
Propagating By way of Division (Branching Species)
It is a extra superior method that solely works on branching species and is finest executed throughout a deliberate repotting to trigger minimal stress to the mom plant.
When you’ve eliminated the plant from its container, test for an outlying department that leads immediately into the taproot.
Utilizing a pointy, sterile knife, gently begin chopping from the place the stem meets the taproot straight down.
The objective is to chop solely a sliver of the taproot immediately linked to that stem with out damaging different branches or the remainder of the taproot.
Plant this chopping in a contemporary pot, following the identical soil and watering strategies as you’d if utilizing cuttings.
Propagating By way of Seeds (Non-Branching Species)
Propagating a dinner plate aeonium or comparable nonbranching species is a little bit harder, as these lack the stems wanted for different propagation strategies.
As a substitute, you have to wait on your aeonium to flower and harvest the seeds as soon as the flower dies.
Place the seeds in a paper bag and permit them to dry.
Fill a shallow nursery container along with your 50/50 combine and scatter the seeds evenly throughout the soil when able to sow.
High with a layer of combine roughly twice the thickness of the seeds.
Cowl the tray with a bit of plastic wrap to make sure the soil stays moist and put in shiny oblique mild, misting the soil when it begins to dry out.
As soon as the seeds germinate, you’ll be able to take away the plastic wrap.
Gently prick out every plantlet as soon as it’s reached ½” inch in diameter and place it in a 2” inch pot with the identical soil peak.
Bonus Technique 1: Propagating By way of Beheading
It is a more odd methodology of propagation finest used for specimens corresponding to Aeonium arboreum ‘Zwartkop’ and is a type of pruning just like taking stem cuttings.
It makes a enjoyable assertion if rising these crops close to a Brunnera macrophylla ‘Queen of Hearts’.
These species will lose the decrease leaves as they develop, leading to a naked stem. You possibly can minimize off the rosette (AKA beheading) the identical approach you’d propagate by means of a traditional chopping.
Nonetheless, on the correct species, this methodology has some further bonuses.
On species that die after flowering, beheading that plant will assist delay or forestall blooms, because the plant will regrow the rosette first.
The brand new rosette will develop nearer to the bottom when chopping a part of the stem off whereas beheading (as a lot as 7 to eight” inches on significantly scraggly specimens).
There may be additionally one different distinction between beheading and a traditional stem chopping, which is the truth that this methodology can be utilized to save lots of a plant that reveals indicators of blooming on different branches.
Bonus Technique #2: Propagating By way of Leaves
Some smaller species, corresponding to aeonium ‘Suncup,’ may be propagated by making leaf cuttings as a substitute of stem cuttings.
This methodology is identical as utilizing stem cuttings. Solely you’re eradicating a complete leaf on the node and permitting it to callous for two to three days.
