This is the 2nd article in a series of 10 posts on frugal tips for landscaping and growing indoor houseplants. Check out the other posts in this series -
1 – Frugal Decorating with Tropical House Plants
photo credit: eraineIn the first post of this series, I discussed frugal ways to decorate your home using indoor houseplants. There can be many costs when purchasing an indoor plant, such as – pots & planters, potting soil, fertilizer, saucers & stands, and the actual plants themselves. In some cases, the total costs of adding an indoor plant to your home can run well over $50. Today, I would like to discuss one of my favorite frugal tips on landscaping and growing indoor houseplants. That tip is propagation. There are many forms of plant propagation that can be used. They include – planting seeds, taking cuttings, grafting, and much more. The most important part of propagation is that the cost is free!
photo credit: Erik MallinsonIf you do some research on propagation, it can be very confusing and overwhelming. I like to keep things simple when it comes to propagating plants. I am not going to go out and spend a bunch of money on plant hormones just to try and get plants to grow. If I can’t do it for free, then I am not going to bother. I currently have propagated 3 different types of plants in our home. Each plant that I have propagated has been very easy, required less than 15 minutes of my time, and cost no money! The following list highlights my results -
- Golden Pothos – Also referred to as Devils Ivy, it is probably the easy indoor plant to grow. As long as you water the plant every once in a while, it will be happy! It is also very simple to propagate and will take you less than 5 minutes time. You simply take a cutting from a healthy plant, stick it in a vase or glass of water (stem down) and within a week you should see roots starting to grow! After a couple of weeks, you stick it in a pot and add some potting soil and you are done.
- Christmas Cactus – Not quite as simple as the Golden Pothos, the Christmas Cactus is fairly easy to propagate. You take a cutting of 3 nodes from a healthy plant and dry them out for 24 hours. Once they are dried, you stick them in a pot with potting soil and within a week or so, you will see new growth starting. I have had a 75% survival rate with my cuttings, so I would suggest doing several at once.
- Rubber Plant – The hardest of the 3 plants I have propagated, you can cut one leaf off a healthy plant and let the milky sap drain out for a day. Once the sap has drained out, simply put it in a pot with potting soil and you are done! Propagating the Rubber Plant is a longer process than the other ones mentioned as it takes longer to become established and grow.
If you search the Internet, you will find many different ideas and ways to propagate the 3 plants I mentioned above, along with hundreds of other plants. The point of this article is not to show you how to propagate these plants, but to point out that it can be a very cheap and easy way to decorate your home. Of course, you will probably still have to buy a pot and potting soil for the plants, so it may cost you a little money.
You could also begin to propagate indoor houseplants and use them as frugal gift ideas! Try propagating a Golden Pothos and letting your kids decorate a clay pot with the plant to give to their mom for Mother’s day! Or you can propagate a Christmas Cactus to give out as a present during the Holiday season. There are so many options and ideas out there that will save you money!
Tip #2 – Research different houseplants that are easy to propagate by searching on the Internet. Once you find the types of plants you want to grow, ask family, friends, and co-worker’s if you can take clippings from their plants. The only other thing you need is patience & time!
This is the 2nd article in a series of posts on tips for frugal landscaping and frugal tips on decorating inside with houseplants.
Related posts:
- Frugal Decorating with Tropical House Plants
- Tips to Save Money on Healthy Groceries
- 4 Easy Ways to Save Money and the Environment
- Organic Vegetable Gardening – A Money Saving Experiment
- How to Save Money on Gas – 11 Tips
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