Propagating Plants: How to Create New Plants for Free

Are you interested in growing your own plants from scratch? This reference book will teach you how to propagate virtually every type of plant.

If you're a thrifty gardener who wants more plants for free, then this book is perfect for you! From fruit trees and ornamental shrubs to exotic orchids and succulents, get all the info you'll need to propagate plants at your fingertips.


Discover the experts' secrets to perfecting plant propagation with this easy-to-follow gardening manual. A horticulturist's delight, this new edition features more than 1,800 detailed illustrations and photos that show both practical step-by-step gardening techniques and the plants themselves.

How long do your seedlings need to germinate? What makes a healthy stem cutting? How do you know what type of rootstock to use when grafting plants? Find out the answer to these questions and more in the most comprehensive guide to propagating plants ever published.

From palms and roses to culinary herbs and conifers, each chapter contains popular and botanically interesting plant groups. Explore the modes of propagation that are unique to the featured plants. Learn about their characteristic ways of reproduction and how these are exploited in various techniques. The techniques are fully illustrated with step-by-step photographs and explanatory artworks. The plants' special needs are discussed, with expert tips on how to achieve success.
This gardening book is crammed with hundreds of step-by-step tutorials and clear advice, ranging from straightforward and simple to more in-depth. The rating system in the plant-by-plant A-Z dictionaries provides you with a quick reference to the relative ease or difficulty of each method of propagation.

Fill Your Garden with Beautiful Plants for Next-To-Nothing

Plant propagation is a fun, rewarding and inexpensive way to add shrubs to your garden or multiply your collection of houseplants. This book helps you successfully reach your goals while steering you clear of common mistakes. It's an indispensable reference book for every propagator's bookshelf.

Use this comprehensive gardening guide to:

Find out how to propagate more than 1,500 garden plants.

A-Z dictionaries of different genera of plants, like perennials, vegetables, or bulbous plants.

Follow the visual step-by-step guides and authoritative advice on cutting, layering, sowing, grafting, and more.

Editor-in-Chief Alan Toogood is an experienced horticulturalist. Having trained at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew,
he went on to study at the Royal Horticultural Society's Garden at Wisley, Surrey. He works as a freelance writer and journalist, writing for such magazines as Gardener's Chronicle, Amateur Gardening, RHS's own magazine The Garden, and Greenhouse, of which he was the Editor for many years.

With a wealth of expertise behind them, other contributors to this book include the herb expert Jekka McVicar, vice-president of the RHS Council and president of the Herb Society, known for her organic herb garden in Gloucestershire; renowned orchid expert Wilma Rittershausen; John Mattock, whose family boasts a 175-year history
of rose growing; and recently retired executive vice-president of the RHS, Jim Gardiner.

The 2019 edition of the book will be revised by Julian Shaw, who worked on DK's previous gardening title RHS A-Z of Garden Plants.