Propagating Plants: How to Create New Plants for Free

A Practical Guide to Growing More Plants for Free 🌱

Propagating Plants is a comprehensive, highly visual guide to raising new plants from seeds, cuttings, division, layering, grafting, and other proven techniques. Edited by Alan Toogood, with photography by Peter Anderson, it explains both the science behind plant reproduction and the hands-on methods gardeners use to increase their stock with confidence.

Whether you want to fill a border with perennials, grow vegetables from seed, or coax a rare shrub into new growth, the book connects each technique to the plants it suits best. The result is a reference you can turn to again and again as your garden grows.

How the Book Is Organised

An opening introduction covers learning from nature, the history and modern practice of propagation, sexual and vegetative increase, tools and equipment, soils and growing media, climate considerations, the propagation environment, and common plant problems. Practical chapters then group plants by type, so advice stays relevant to the material in front of you.

• Garden trees — cuttings, sowing, grafting, budding, layering, palms, cycads, conifers
• Shrubs and climbing plants — cuttings, division, seed, layering, grafting, heaths, roses
• Perennials — division, seed, cuttings, ferns, alpines, water garden plants, bromeliads, grasses, orchids
• Annuals and biennials — sowing and seasonal care
• Cacti and other succulents — seed, division, cuttings, grafting
• Bulbous plants — division, seed, scaling and chipping
• Vegetables — seed sowing, culinary herbs, and crop-by-crop guidance

Techniques You Can Put into Practice

Each chapter begins with the basic methods for that plant group, followed by plant-by-plant A–Z directories. These entries give specific propagation advice for a wide range of genera, with ease ratings that help you judge which methods are straightforward and which are more challenging. Step-by-step photography and clear annotations show what to do at each stage, from taking a cutting to transplanting seedlings.

What Makes It Useful

Rather than treating propagation as a single skill, the book helps you match the method to the plant. That approach is especially helpful when you are working with different plant types—what works for a shrub cutting may not suit a bulb or a cactus. The A–Z sections and technique ratings make it easy to find practical guidance without wading through generalities.

Who Will Find It Valuable

Home gardeners, allotment growers, horticulture students, and anyone who wants to increase their plants without buying new stock each season will find plenty here. Beginners can follow the step-by-step sequences, while more experienced growers can use the detailed directories to expand the range of plants they propagate.

Start Your Next Propagation Project

With its blend of clear explanation, botanical context, and practical photography, Propagating Plants is a lasting reference for anyone interested in the craft of making more plants. Add it to your digital gardening shelf and keep it close when sowing, cutting, dividing, or grafting.