SUCCULENT PLANT PROPAGATION: Leaf Cuttings & Such

I am very interested in starting plants from leaf cuttings. It blows my mind that it's so easy. But first, let me tell you a little bit about how I became aware of this process. As I told you in other posts, my friend Donna got me turned on to succulent plants. I love her little succulent garden; I love the amazing varieties of the plants and their beautiful architectural forms. Okay, but how the heck was I going to get started? I mean, like most Americans out there, especially here in expensive California, I'm broke, so a couple of bucks for a plant and a couple more for a pot is a lot of money to me! Sad, but true.

Anyway, I looked into cuttings, and learned you can simply cut off a piece from a succulent plant, let it callous for a couple of days, and stick it in the dirt to plant it! Cool! But it got even better, and I think even more exciting: You can take a leaf from a succulent plant, (and other plants for that matter), let it callous over for a couple of days, and then simply lay it on top of the soil and a new plant forms at it's base. What th'?!? It's crazy, but true. When Donna and I talked about it more, she looked around in some of her pots and found leaves that had fallen of the plant itself, and a new plant began at it's base. We were blown away and thrilled. It's a great way to reproduce hard to find plants and, from what I've read, it's a lot easier than trying to grow the plants from seeds, (although I want to try that sometime too)! I've got a great link for plant seeds gathered from Africa...I'll give you that link later!

The picture above showing a new plant starting from the base of a leaf is from the following link:

http://www.desert-tropicals.com/Articles/Leaf_cuttings/index.html

I found some great links with step-by-step instructions on doing this yourself. Here's one of the better ones:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Propagating-Succulent-Leaf-Cuttings/

(By the way, this is a great little website. I might have to do some tutorials myself)!

Anyway, I am going to set up a spot on my balcony to start some plants using leaf cuttings. I'm very excited about this and will keep you posted as to how the process is going! I can't wait for a few of my brand new plants, from my brand new hobby to really get going, so I can start some plants from them!

Oh and by the way...I just got an African Violet plant that's just gorgeous. (I'm trying to get started on indoor houseplants again, since I gave up on them while having little kids running around). I found this photo at http://grow.ars-informatica.ca/grow_topic.php?subject=cut5 showing that you can start African Violets the same way....

I know that this should be obvious, but I'm just so stinkin' overwhelmed with the excitement of my new succulent garden, that I guess the obvious fails me at the moment!