Hey Guys, Welcome to Gardening Upbeat, and I hope you are doing very well. Today, we are going to see how to grow Bougainvillea from cuttings the most EASIEST way. You would see all the updates with results. So, let’s get started.
Preparation:
Here, I have collected a big stem of Bougainvillea plant. Actually, I have pruned one of my plants, and instead of throwing the stem, decided to grow some more plants. One important NOTE – what’s the best time to grow from cuttings? Spring and summer is the best time to grow the Bougainvillea from cuttings. But, I did everything in February so that I can show you the result soon. Let’s follow the steps now –
First Step: Please select stems which are around pencil width or else you can take much thicker stems like me. Using thicker stems would be a great idea if you are looking for a much bushier plant very soon. Bougainvillea also roots very easily from thick stem or hardwood cuttings.
Step Number Two: Get rid of all the thorns to avoid any kind of injuries.
Step Number Three: Make six to eight inches long cuttings. If you like, you can cut in 45-degree angle or even cut horizontally like me. As you can see, I have prepared four cuttings here.
Step Number Four: Scratch on the bottom part, nearly around one point five to two inches.
Step Number Five: Select a decent sized pot and here I am using a 5-inch deep and 5-inch wider pot. Please avoid using a bigger pot, like 10 inches or even 12 inches. The bigger pot is going to retain the moisture for a much longer time and cuttings may rot.
Step Number Six: Select a very well-drained medium and I am using construction sand. Next, press the soil very gently. There is no need to add anything else.
Step Number Seven: If possible, please use rooting hormone powder, and I am using the number two rooting hormone powder. If you don’t have it, you can also use Aloe Vera gel.
Step Number Eight: Make few holes in the soil.
Step Number Nine: Dip the cuttings in plain water and then gently rub the rooting hormone powder.
Step Number Ten: Insert the cuttings in the soil and please make sure to insert at least one to two inches inside the soil.
Step Number Eleven: Secure the cuttings by pressing the soil gently.
Step Number Twelve: Water thoroughly but my sand is already wet as you can see. So, I am not going to water it. Please keep the soil moist all the time at this time and sprinkling water once in 5 to 7 days works for me. It highly depends on your place, and that’s why please water based on the environment in your place.
Step Number Thirteen: Please keep the pot only in a steady but bright area. No need for direct sunlight. Humidity in my place is quite high. If it’s low in your place, please cover the cuttings with a plastic bag.
All right! Let’s take a look at the updates now :-
As we can see, all the cuttings have produced new shoots. Now here I am going to do two important things – First, I am going to provide them direct sunlight at least for 3 to 4 hours, and please note that, till today they were only in a shady area. On Second, I am going to keep the pot on the top of another pot which I have filled with normal garden soil. There is no need to do this step if you don’t want to but I am doing this so that the soil gets enough moisture all the time. I actually find it a bit difficult to maintain the moisture level in the sand. At this time, I water thoroughly as soon as I see the topsoil is looking very dry. During this time, I was watering like once in two to three days.
Transplanting:
As you can see, all the cuttings are growing very nicely. If you like, you can transplant them at this stage or even a bit earlier. But, please avoid transplanting while cuttings are especially at this stage. It’s because, many cuttings produce new leaves even before they start producing the roots. I am also pinching the top part so that they produce more branches. Please note at this time I was watering on a daily basis.
Results:
Finally, all the cuttings are growing very nicely as you can see. As I have pruned, they are producing more new shoots. This stem got broken and it happened due to heavy wind. One other plant fell off on this pot and I’m lucky that no cuttings got damaged other than this branch. Let’s take a look at the roots and I believe you love to see this part. Please note that you would get a result much faster if you do it in Spring or even in Summer. Mine took some time as I did everything in February. Please also avoid waiting for many days or else they would produce the root ball and would get root bound. At that time, it would be too difficult to divide the cuttings. Once the new shoots have a few leaves, let’s say 10 to 12, and growing nicely, we can transplant them easily without killing. Here you can see the beautiful roots….I am really very satisfied with the result. One small TIP again – See on this stem, we can see that it’s starting to produce the roots from the upper part. So while transplanting this cutting we can….so while transplanting this…so while transplanting this cutting, we can keep all this part inside the soil. Within a few days, it’s going to produce lots of roots and we would get a much healthier plant.
Other than the Bougainvilleas, HIBISCUS is also very easy to grow from cuttings
