Leaf Layering - A Good Way to Propagate Begonias
Last week, I posted a blog called, “Propagating Hydrangeas From Cuttings” and we received so many wonderful comments. By the way, I love reading your comments and encourage you to leave more! Today, I’d like to show you another easy way of propagating new plants using a method known as leaf layering. This works especially well for plants like begonias and African violets. I first became interested in begonias when I visited my maternal grandparents in Buffalo, New York, when I was just a little girl. Grandma had several large begonia plants on her sun porch and dining room windowsills. I loved their convoluted leaves, their unusual colors, and their scaly and hairy stems. It was Grandma who first showed me how to leaf layer, as she wanted me to have beautiful begonias like hers back home in New Jersey. So lately, we’ve been propagating begonias and other plants in the greenhouse. I had some new pots from master potter, Guy Wolff and Ryan McCallister, my gardener, planted them with begonias made from leaf layering. It's a great way to propagate, multiply, and even give.
1 As you may know, in my greenhouse, I have a large collection of beautiful begonias, many of which were grown from leaf cuttings.
2 Begonia leaves root easily. All you need to do is snip a leaf, push its stem into potting soil, and keep it moist. After a few weeks, or more, you should start to see new leaves emerge. When the roots are fully established, you can pot up the new plant.
3 When rooting leaves, we like to fill flats with a mix of sand and potting soil and cover the mix with a layer of perlite, which provides support to the leaf cuttings.
4 An alternative to rooting from the stem is a process called leaf layering, which gives you multiple plants from a single leaf.
5 My gardener, Ryan McCallister, used a sharp slicing blade to cut around the stem of a begonia leaf.
6 Technically, each of the green veins in this leaf could form a new plant.
7 However, Ryan included two or three veins per leaf section to obtain faster results and more roots.
8 He then formed slits in the potting mix using a metal ruler.
9 Ryan then placed a leaf section into each slit and watered them gently, never allowing the potting mix to dry out.
10 Eventually, as seen in this photo, new leaves have formed, creating an entirely new plant!
11 In addition to begonias, Ryan also rooted succulent plants in much the same manner.
12 I say, we have many fine and healthy specimens to share with family and friends. Now they just need to be divided and potted.
13 I thought it would be nice to pot the begonias in some of my special white clay pots made by expert potter Guy Wolff.
14 Occasionally, and quite sadly, a pot or two will fall over and break, but the pieces of those pots are saved for potting purposes.
15 A shard of pottery goes over the hole in the bottom of each pot to keep the potting mix from escaping, but still allowing for water to drain.
16 A good potting mix is scooped
17 And placed in the pots.
18 Notice that M. Stewart was stamped on each of these pots. No need for a gift card!
19 Ryan began lifting and dividing the begonia plants, carefully pulling apart the root clumps.
20 You can see the original leaf cutting in his left hand. Look at the plant one small piece of leaf produced!
21 The yield is very impressive!
22 Ryan placed each plant into a pot and covered the roots with potting soil.
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
I'm up with a sore ankle so decided to give your blog an early look-see. I really love your begonias and what a great way to propagate them - by using the leaves. They really will make nice gifts and especially in those white pots. I wonder if that is how my coleus is popping up in different spots in my little garden. I know when I try to transplant one by using a stem, it usually doesn't take and then later one will show up across the garden. No doubt I drop leaves while trimming and maybe the wind blows them over to the other side. I'll never know but now that you mention the veins in the begonia leaves, a wayward leaf sounds plausible. Stranger things have shown up after planting something I bought from Home Depot. I just call it two for one and try to guess what the bonus plant might be.
~
Good going on HSN. I watched most of it and caught the last hour and I must say you guys really have some great craft products. The punches are amazing but so are the papers and the other tools. I thought about buying a few more punches but I figured they'd just lay around and not get used because I don't have a lot of time to craft or I'd just forgot my other duties and turn into a crafting fool. I'd be like Alex punching paper all day long which I did with the first of your punches I ever bought. I did the same with the fringe scissors, practiced cutting on everything including envelopes. Thanks for the propagating lesson and now I must go lie down before the Tylenol wears off. Trish
Posted by: Trish | September 14th, 2012 at 12:49 am
And I would be thrilled to receive a lovely M. Stuart begonia pot!
Posted by: Susan | September 14th, 2012 at 3:53 am
Martha, the begonias are beautiful. I like making more plants from one plant.
A few years ago, I bought 3 ferns for a dollar each. They were in pretty good condition, but I got them to a better stage and divided them. The next year, I divided again, and I now have 9. If I"d divided them this time, I would have had at least 27, but alas, I didn't. But, 9 full pots for three dollars isn't a bad bargain.
As I have nowhere to over-winter them, I have to pile them in my shack, and so I decided to not make more this time.
Thanks for the information and have a Blessed weekend.
Gloria G!!
Posted by: Gloria | September 14th, 2012 at 6:18 am
Just fascinating!! I had no idea about leaf layering. I will be trying this soon! I love you oh-so-wonderful blog!
Posted by: Barb in Texas | September 14th, 2012 at 7:28 am
Thanks for sharing memories of your Grandma Martha, I can just imagine the beautiful begonias she grew in her home. I must say I have never seen this method of propagating plants, very interesting. I love that you're sharing your begonias with family and friends and presenting them in the white clay pots made by Guy Wolff. They're very nice, I Like the details and your name on them makes them extra special. Thanks for sharing this blog Martha!
Posted by: Cindy F | September 14th, 2012 at 7:54 am
Those pots with your name stamped on them are just lovely. What a wonderful way to give one of the plants to someone! You always have the BEST ideas!
Posted by: Cindy | September 14th, 2012 at 8:00 am
What a fascinating way to propagate begonias. I plan to try it. Thank you for the tip.
Posted by: Karen Ross | September 14th, 2012 at 8:03 am
I really like learning new things! This was an awesome post. Is the process for succulents the same?
Posted by: homer | September 14th, 2012 at 8:59 am
Hi Martha, OMG! This certainly is another terrific blog and how great that you learned how to leaf layer begonias from your Grandmother when you were young girl! I don't remember how I learned that process, but I used to leaf layer pansies years ago and give them for gifts to friends-how fun that was! It was also great to see your hydrangeas being repotted with cuttings on the Sept. 5th blog! How did they turn out?! I loved seeing the great website from Guy Wolff and enjoyed viewing the videos about his son, Ben, another great pottery maker! I have some of Guy Wolffs beautiful pottery with your name on them and use them alot-they are the greatest! I recall seeing Guy Wolff and Ben Wolff on your TV Shows years ago and recall them singing one time! What a great pair those guys are!! These photos and comments about propagating begonias are absolutely awesome and Ryan McCallister is a great gardener at your beautiful farm! How neat that Ryan did succulent plants, too! I love seeing Guy Wolffs new smaller pots, too! Was really fun to see you and Alex on HSN yesterday! Hope you have another great day and a terrific weekend! Jan
Posted by: Jan Erickson | September 14th, 2012 at 9:32 am
It never ceases to amaze me how much I learn on your blog Martha. Everyday I look forward to the lesson. Whether it's learning how to propogate plants, keep bees, build a greenhouse or be a part of your friends & families' wonderful vacations and excursions to beautiful places. I am DE-VO-TED to this blog Martha. Thank you for sharing so much with us.
Posted by: J P White | September 14th, 2012 at 9:43 am
This is so interesting. I have brought a lovely white light light lavendar petunia back to life..an Amish farmer that I visited in Chester County at dusk on an end of July Friday evening was throwing it out making way for his inventory of mums. He gave the petunias and lantania to me. I purchased several herbs and an indoor favorite plant of my mother's which we have not seen in years in the Philadelphia suburbs - it is called Tradescantia zebrina, more familiarly wondering Jew plants. I wanted some lessons on capturing the petunia seeds for next year. I spent alot of time clearing out poison ivy vine this summer and have dedicated the land cleared to some new perennials of herbs, black eyed Susans, asters and chrysanthemums, and coresopsis..with some containers of annuals like petunia, lantania, coleus, and impatients. The September garden is so beautiful and it was worth all the work through the heat and all the watering..this week's weather is great pay back from Mother Nature.
Posted by: Teresa Touey | September 14th, 2012 at 9:53 am
Thanks for the propagation technigues, I have had honor of caring for plants past 4 weeks that make my living room look like a floral shop. Just hope that you comment on ARBITRAGE opening today. How about your PBS show?
Posted by: ann | September 14th, 2012 at 9:54 am
Martha, this blog was very interesting. I too hope you get more people to leave comments I'm so surprised people don't leave more than you get.
Posted by: KLBrown | September 14th, 2012 at 11:03 am
MARTHA---I just love all of your daily lessons! I will leaf layer begonias TONIGHT! Your new Halloween aps on MS Craft Studio are phenomenal. AS always, thank you for enriching and teaching us daily!
Posted by: Jonathan Brown | September 14th, 2012 at 11:28 am
I didn't know you could do this. I've propagated african violets by planting a leaf but I've never seen leaf layering. Great post!
Posted by: Andrea | September 14th, 2012 at 12:14 pm
You have the most amazing gardens....Totally jealous.. I just moved to a new apartment with a 1000 sf terrace. Can't wait to get my hands dirty!!
Posted by: Holiday Baker Man | September 14th, 2012 at 12:57 pm
Fascinating Martha! Thank you for the instructions! Begonias and succulents are my new found passion and I am eager to start propagating. In your first photo you have a picture of some begonias in your greenhouse....I am intrigued by the very black leaved begonia with the greenish eye....have looked all over the internet but have not been able to accurately identify it. Do you happen to know the variety? Love your blog....I read it everyday!
Posted by: Cindy | September 14th, 2012 at 1:26 pm
Amazing! Thank you for the education you give in such a straightforward way. I plan to give this a try.
Posted by: Marsha Cannon | September 14th, 2012 at 5:00 pm
Amazing for begonias, but what about african violets, I know that they are not easy to root even in water.
Does anyone have experience with the same technique on African Violets ?
Did they root and grow new leaves
Posted by: cenk | September 15th, 2012 at 3:43 am
I have always pinned the leaves to the soil - Ryan has given me a new idea with inserting the leaves INTO the soil. ANd I usually don't leave the plants together so long - I may waiting longer too! Great new ideas!
Posted by: Jayne | September 15th, 2012 at 7:12 am
Martha this is wonderful news for me! I do love begonias, especially tuberous begonias...can those be propagated this way as well? I am very happy that I can propagate my African Violets this way. I have had some of my violets for 15 + years, and would love to "grow" my collection. Your white pottery is lovely. As I begin the thought process of redesigning my dining room, these pots would fit right in with my rustic theme.
Posted by: Nantucket Daffodil | September 15th, 2012 at 7:16 am
HI MARTHA, CAN YOU TELL ME OF OTHER THINGS TO DO THIS WAY ? BECAUSE I HAVE SO MANY OTHER HOUSE PLANTS AND I AM AFRAID THAT I WILL LOOSE ONE AND I WOULD LOVE TO PROPAGATE MANY MORE.. MICHELLE FROM TEXAS.
Posted by: MICHELLE GILES | September 15th, 2012 at 10:34 am
For the first time this Summer, I bought begonias and despite the incredible heat, they did very well on my balcony. I will start re potting and give some as house gifts. Great idea !
Posted by: Bea Trainer | September 15th, 2012 at 2:52 pm
WoW! Who would have thought begonias can be propagated that way.
Excellent post!
Posted by: Manuela | September 15th, 2012 at 2:54 pm
That's my dream garden right there hehe. Have to buy a house first though:D. Very pretty
Posted by: Aaron Hung | September 15th, 2012 at 6:42 pm
Martha thankyou so much for your wonderful tips. I haven't got green fingers but love flowers so I am going to try and sow them just the way you've shown. I live in Ireland so our weather doesn't help. Begonias were my Moms favorite. Hugs Joan.
Posted by: Joan Nolan | September 15th, 2012 at 8:33 pm
I have an Angelwing Begonia that has been in the family for over 90 years. It was given to my great-grandmother after a hospitalization for polio. She gave it to my grandmother because she couldn't take it on the train to her home in Topeka, KS. I've had a cutting for over 40 years and have shared pieces with many family members. We just break off a branch & root it in water. I'll have to try the leaf layering process. Thanks for the tip.
Posted by: Martha E. in KS | September 15th, 2012 at 10:02 pm
I have never seen this method before. I'm so impressed! When I was quite young my grandmother taught me how to root African Violets. However, I never considered other plants. I can't wait for the rain to stop outside. So that I can cut some begonias in my backyard and give it a try. Thanks Martha!
Posted by: Tina | September 16th, 2012 at 10:24 am
Beautiful amd amazing technique thank you so much. Have a wonderful weekend
Posted by: Rowaida Flayhan | September 16th, 2012 at 12:20 pm
Hi Martha
My garden is so tiny! I've just subscribed to your blog to get some tips and will try and follow these as much as possible. Thanks for your constant inspiration.
Posted by: Rachel Webb | September 16th, 2012 at 2:03 pm
Your greenhouse and begonia collection are exquisite and this is a new way of striking that I've never seen or heard of before. I gave up on begonias because the Houston heat just burned them but I think I'll be snapping a few leaves here and there when I come across them. I'm a young gardener but by golly I will one day be as great a gardener as my Nana and Mother in Australia! Just so much to learn always about botany and it's aesthetic and medicinal uses.
But my favorite part of this post? those gorgeous personalized pots by Guy Wolff. I wish I was on your Christmas list! cheers Martha and your team, you truly inspire me
Posted by: Ebony Porter | September 16th, 2012 at 10:57 pm
Another impressive gardening tips from the expert. I live in tropical Indonesia, and I take Begonias for granted. I can always buy them from side street stall for a cent or two. But now that I know how easy it is to propagate one, I wouldn't have to buy.
ps: I would love love love to get one of those potted begonias of yours
Posted by: Ms. O | September 19th, 2012 at 4:28 am
Dear Matha! my name is supreeya, I'm your fanclub from Thailand, You're my idol,I love your style and everything in your blog network, I'be your magazine membership too, Living magazine [Thailand] is my faverite that I waiting everymonth! I have not so good in English but I wanna contact you so much, at my home I have many kinds of plants, I love begonias, succulents, cactus and anotherkinds of plants too.Everyday when I go back from work I must walked to see my plants and I was very happy when I saw a little leaf growth, I saw in Living magazine that you ever come toThailand, When do you come again? I wish if you come again, I will meet you!! [That's my dream!!] I hope that you will read my comment and hope you talk with me sometime,miss you
Posted by: supreeya monyakula | September 23rd, 2012 at 11:00 am
thanks for the ideas on propagating the leaves.of begonias. I have been doing the zoneal geraniums.. I was so proud of myself when spring came that my geraniums were such a nice size to transplant into my big pots on my deck. THEY were beautiful. i really would like to bring back a blue lace cap hydragenia. that was in my fathers yard. It had grown to be at least 10 feet tall this year. i had never seen one this huge. I hope to get it to transplant to my yard. Thanks again for the IDEA.
Posted by: Rita Wozniak | September 23rd, 2012 at 8:30 pm
I have to admit, I don't 'get' begonias. I never have. They seem boring. Nothing about this flower speaks to me. The leaf layering is interesting though.
Posted by: Karen | October 20th, 2012 at 2:09 pm
maravilloso!..las begonias son un mundo fascinante tengo varias y al ver este articulo dan ganas de ir corriendo al vivero a comprar mas jajaja lastima que aqui no se consigan algunas hermosas variedades que usted tiene, gracias por los tips, siempre eh sido un admirador de su trabajo
Posted by: Eric | November 2nd, 2012 at 1:30 am
Hi Martha
I have been watching you on Israeli t.v. for years and highly appreciate you and your show
Today I made for instance the California nut Bundt that saw on your website.
want to let you know that in Israel you are well known and appreciated for creativity and being a wonderful host
love your show and would like to ask you how to get your journal and access to prizes.
bye from Israel
when are you coming for a visit?
Is it possible at all-do you have friends /contacts in Israel?
will we have a Martha's store in Tel Aviv for instance?
would love you respond
Orly Miller
Karmiel
Israel
Posted by: Orly Miller | December 28th, 2012 at 7:37 am
lovely plans indeed. do begonias have healing properties. if so which ones.
Posted by: Precious | February 15th, 2013 at 11:40 pm