Money Doesn't Grow on Trees... Or does it?
I've talked a lot about how important it is to have great curb appeal, and that empty flower beds are sooo ugly and depressing. The solution is to put something in those beds, but that costs money. And we're just in the staging process, the house hasn't even been seen much less been sold yet! So I have a few tricks up my sleeve to help with that expense that would otherwise be out of your pocket.
Propagation
To propagate a plant means to grow one from another one. Some plants are propagated very easily; others take professional horticulturists and since I'm assuming there are few horticulturists in my audience, I'll just stick to the easy ones. :)
If you have a flower bed at home that you can sacrifice for this, or a sunny window sill in your garage, you can propagate a variety of plants yourself for your staging projects. It takes a little space where you can work with potting soil and fertilizer, so if you don't have a work bench in the garage or a garden shed, then just do it on the back porch.
Suggested Starter Plants
One of my favorite kind of plant is the succulents. They come in a variety of shapes and colors, and look great in potted arrangements in window boxes, pots on the porch, and also in the ground. Here is an arrangement I have and love:
Don't ask me to name all the varieties... there are too many to remember. But the reason I bring them up is that no matter what kind it is, it propagates the same! To propagate a succulent, you start by snapping off a leaf. It has to be a clean break from the stem:
Succulents usually grow tall and leggy, it's just what they do and it's not as pretty. When this happens, I snap the leaves off the lower part of the stem and lay them out so they can callous over. It's important to let the leaves callous over where they once were attached to the stem. They won't root properly if you skip this step. Let them "dry" for about a week. I do the same things with the tops:
I just snip the tops off with a pair of scissors or garden snippers and let them callous over as well. Tops are the easiest to regrow. You just stick them in some nice nutrient rich topsoil and water them with a spray bottle 2-3 times per week. Once they are strong enough you can move them outside. That's when they will really take off! Here's a top that I restarted this week:
This start lost a leaf already. Chances are, if I just leave it alone it will sprout a baby on its own. This is what the babies look like after a few weeks in indirect light, being watered only with a spray bottle:
Aren't they cute! Notice how the "Mother" leaf is withering. It is best to let it wither and fall off on its own. That way you won't damage the baby when you transfer it and its new little roots to a pot.
After you have stripped off the leaves and decapitated the stem, leave the original stem in its pot and keep on watering it. New babies will grow where the original leaves once were and you'll have a nicely shaped succulent once again!
Spider Plants!
Spider plants are one of my favorite staging plants. They are a beautiful shade of green, they require little to no maintenance other than watering a few times per week, and they look fantastic without any pruning whatsoever. You can put them in pots on the front porch or in the kitchen window (if they're small) and they are SO EASY to propagate! Spider plants when they mature grow offshoots. These are stem-like growths that come out from among the leaves and attached to the stem are usually several baby spider plants. I use my snippers to cut the whole baby plus a bit of the stem right off and put them in fertilized water until I see white roots. White roots mean they're ready for the dirt!
Now, I said fertilized water. It can just be tap water, but fertilized water makes the roots come out in just one or two days whereas regular water it can take up to a week or more. My daughter has a planted fish tank that has the BEST WATER oh my goodness, it is FULL of growth enhancing fertilizers so when she changes the tank water once a week I save it and use it to water all my plants! Smart? Mhmm. :D Regular fish tank water is good for plants also, as the nitrate content of the water is very high. I used it for a long time before she got the planted tank. It's like fish water on steroids!
Here is a spider plant I just started (there's a succulent start there, too but the light washed it out):
It was nice and healthy so I moved it outside. I will water it with fish water 2-3 times per week until it needs a bigger pot. Here is one that I put a spider plant and some rose moss together in a small pot:
The rose moss will bloom with small colorful flowers in a few days. Here is what a full grown rose moss looks like (this one is in my garden):
I think it will look good with the spider plant next to it. Now here's a spider plant I started three weeks ago and it has absolutely exploded! It already needs a bigger pot AND it has offshoots! I couldn't believe my eyes! (It's that fish tank water, I'm telling you!)
Rose moss also propagates very easily. You can take a stem right off the plant and stick it in dirt, water it and it will grow. Seriously, it's that easy. You'll never have to pay for rose moss again! It makes a nice ground cover, or border, or in a potted arrangement with other plants.
Ok, so I haven't done the math, but I know that one small to medium succulent arrangement costs about $10-$15 depending on your florist. Think of all the plants you could have with a little propagation! And the spider plants! I see them at the Home and Garden store and laugh at how many people still buy a cart load of them, when really all you need is one to start with and they will be coming out your ears!
So now you have some tips on how to get plants on the cheap for your house staging projects, or just for use in your own home. I will do another post with more propagating tips because there are a ton of them! Did you know you can stick a long stem rose in a potato, plant it, and grow a whole new rose bush?? I haven't done it myself yet but I sure am going to try! I will definitely post about that! If you have other plants that are easily propagated that I haven't mentioned here, leave them for me in the comments and I'll include them in a future post!
Ps. If you stage a lot of houses, more than you can keep up with by planting what you propagate, use nice planters that you can put the plants in, improve your curb appeal and then take the planter with you for another staging. Here is a beautiful plan for a container garden I found at www.bhg.com:
And here is another one you could stage and then take away for your next staging project:
I keep my nice containers on my own front porch when they're not in use at one of my project houses. Sometimes my porch gets quite crowded, but people always say it looks nice! Some days the mail lady can hardly get to the door! lol
If you're going the container route, be sure you still mulch the beds tho, at the very least! Ok, bye for now!
Next: The Painted Door
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