So far, propagations haven’t been my best results, but as always, this takes practice. For some plants compared to others, this method of making new plants, through the leaf cuttings of a bigger plant, often should work, if you do things right.
With the coleus plants, this has never failed me, and I’ve used water propagations to make this work. It is possible to use soil propagations, which have also worked with my coleus plants, but it hasn’t really worked for me with other plants, such as any of my carnivorous plants.
It’s been hit or miss, for most of my efforts with carnivorous plants, especially for my venus fly traps; none of which has shown a successful propagation for me just yet. The sundews haven’t been so successful either, until recently.
I’ve went through putting some remaining leaf propagations, and this of course requires three things, besides the leaf cuttings: a small container with a lid, distilled water (which may need to be refreshed every now and again), and some patience. It’s also best to have them under some adequate light source, to aid in making the propagations happen a bit faster. Often it takes well into a month before seeing any results.
What I did was take a cutting from a cape sundew, and it has to be a healthy leaf for it to work. Then, I placed it into distilled water, and then just wait. If I check back and see any murkiness, then it’s time to change the water. After a while, should there be anything different, such as seeing a little something on the leaf or leaves that wasn’t there before, that’s a good sign. Now, it’s a matter of how long do I leave it, before I bring it out to transfer into a plant pot. I’ll have to do a bit more research, to figure that out for myself.
What’s interesting about sundews, they can propagate in many different ways, which makes them easy to replicate and multiply. It can happen with growing flower stalks and begin flowering. These flowers self-pollinate, which means it doesn’t need to mix with other flowers, through standard pollination, either by insects or by hand. This will create the seeds, and all that’s needed is to collect them, or to let them spread out on their own.
Sundews can also replicate new sundews through the flower stalks, which helps. I haven’t seen this work, but I’ll definitely try it sometime.
To add to this, some sundews have been known for multiplying on their own, where under an existing sundew, will appear a smaller one. I’ve seen this with my spoon-leaved sundews, on several occasions.
So, just know that if there are successful periods of growth, you’ll experience the likelihood of continuous sundew growth and replication, for some time. The propagations will only aid in making this result happen even more. You just need the right conditions, and you’ll be good.