Gadenin日本語Get the appReplace a leggy plant rather than nurse it
Lipstick plant ages in a predictable way. The stems lengthen, the leaves near the crown fall and are not replaced, and after three or four years you have a spider of bare stems with a tuft of foliage at each end. No amount of feeding restores the missing leaves, because the plant does not make new growth from old bare wood reliably enough to fill the gaps.
The answer is not patience but a knife. This species roots so easily from cuttings that a full-sized replacement plant is roughly six months of work, and a pot of five rooted cuttings looks better in its first year than a leggy parent ever will again. Treat the old plant as a source of material, take far more cuttings than you think you need, and keep the parent only until the new one has filled out.
The other advantage is that the new plant is young wood throughout, and young wood is what flowers well. A renewed plant usually blooms more heavily than the tired one it replaced.
Take cuttings when you cut the plant back after flowering. The prunings are the propagation material, so the two jobs are really one job done at the same time.
Choosing the material
Use firm, healthy stem sections from the current or previous season's growth. Very soft green tips rot before they root; old hard woody sections at the base of the plant are slow and unreliable. The middle ground, a stem that bends but does not flop, is what you want.
Each cutting should be four to six inches (10-15 cm) long and carry three or four pairs of leaves. Cut just below a node, the slightly swollen point where a pair of leaves joins the stem, because that is where roots emerge fastest. Then strip the lowest one or two pairs of leaves, leaving bare stem to bury.
| Cutting type | Where it comes from | How it behaves |
|---|---|---|
| Soft tip | The last two inches of a growing shoot | Roots fast but wilts and rots easily |
| Semi-ripe stem | Below the tip, firm but flexible | Best choice, roots in three to five weeks |
| Old bare wood | The base of an aged plant | Slow and often fails, avoid |
| Stem with flower remains | Any recently flowered tip | Remove the spent calyx first, otherwise fine |
Rooting them
Cuttings root well in either an open potting mix or plain water, and each has a trade-off. Compost gives roots that are already adapted to soil and need no second transition; water lets you watch progress and is more forgiving if you forget them for a week. If you have plenty of material, do both and keep whichever works better in your conditions.
- Prepare the cuttings Cut cleanly just below a node with a sharp blade wiped with alcohol. Strip the lowest one or two leaf pairs. Leave the cut ends in the air for an hour so the surface dries slightly, which reduces rotting.
- Insert into an open mix Use half peat-free potting mix and half perlite or fine bark. Push each cutting in about an inch and a half (4 cm), firm gently, and put five or six around the edge of a 4 inch (10 cm) pot. Rooting hormone is optional and makes little difference with this species.
- Keep them warm and humid Cover with a clear bag held clear of the leaves, or use a propagator lid. Aim for 70-77F (21-25C) at the base and bright indirect light. Vent for a few minutes every couple of days so condensation does not settle on the leaves.
- Check for roots after three weeks A gentle tug that meets resistance means roots have formed. Most cuttings root in three to five weeks in warmth, longer in a cool room. Remove the cover gradually over a week once they are rooted.
- Pot up into their final home Move the whole group into a 5 or 6 inch (13-15 cm) pot without separating them, or pot three or four together into a hanging pot. Several cuttings in one pot is how you get a full plant rather than a thin one.
The first year after rooting
Young plants want warmth, even moisture and bright indirect light, and no cool rest at all in their first season. Feed at half strength every two weeks through the warm months to build the length of stem that will eventually carry flowers.
Pinch the growing tip out of each cutting once it has made about six inches (15 cm) of new stem. Each pinch turns one trailing stem into two, and since flowers form at stem tips, doubling the number of tips doubles the potential display. Two rounds of pinching in the first year produce a dense plant; after that, stop pinching or you will be removing the flowering tips.
Expect the first flowers in the second year, after the plant has had one proper cool rest. A cutting taken this season and given a cool spell too early will simply stall.
Keeping track of what worked
Cuttings all look the same three weeks later, so label them at the moment you stick them. Note the date, whether the material was soft or semi-ripe, and which medium you used. When one batch roots in three weeks and another sulks for two months, those labels tell you why.
It is also worth noting which parent stems the material came from, because the vigorous well-lit stems on the window side of a plant root noticeably faster than the drawn ones from the shaded back. After a couple of rounds you will find yourself taking cuttings only from the good side, and the record is what makes that obvious.