Propagating Cordylines

rubiales

Been doing a bit of tidying up in the sunshine today and have finally chopped last summer's flower spike off my red Cordyline. I was about to throw it in the compost when it dawned on me that there were two perfectly healthy-looking leaf shoots on the flower spike and I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to how I could go about propagating them?

So far I have chopped them into single cuttings with about 1/2 inch of flower stem on either side, then popped them on my kitchen windowsill in a jar of water just up to the base of the leaves. Hoping this will encourage root growth so that I can the pot them up, but would be grateful for any advice.

Cheers :beer:

Lemon_Tree

ok possible thicko comment here, are cordylines the spiky plants? if so i though they sort of propogated by you splitting them out as they grow new ones at the base. But you never know hopefully you'll end up with two new plants.

alanobrien

Only evergrown them from seed myself but there is a propagation guide for them here;

http://www.burkesbackyard.com.au/2002/archives/2002/in_the_garden/flowering_plants_and_shrubs2/cordylines

acemoola

Does it have an offsets growing on the stem? If so you could try pulling these off and planting up....

rubiales

acemoola wrote: »

Does it have an offsets growing on the stem? If so you could try pulling these off and planting up....

None on the stem of the plant itself, but had two along the stem of the flower spike.

Looking at the info from the website in post 3 I think I will try them in a pot on the windowsill and let you know what happens!

Thanks to everyone for your help!

ukjoel

I bought one of these a couple of years ago on ebay for £1.
It was collection only and the tub it was in was a metre across and a metre deep. We couldnt move the tub so had to split the plant in the garden which we did by pulling in different directions and using two garden forks, swearing at it a lot and then kicking it. Eventually we got it into pieces small enough to manhandle into my Focus. When I got home a further split them and just chucked them in pots or the garden or wherever there was space. All without fail are doing very well and growing. I got about 60 plants out of the beast. ranging from 3ft to 7ft.
Split them up at the base and as long as each bit has a leaf and a bit of root it should be fine.
J