Photo: Claire Tourigny, from the book Les 1500 trucs du jardinier paresseux Propagating a spider plant by layering would be more “what Mother Nature does.” To layer a spider plant, secure a plantlet to a pot of potting soil, leaving the stolon, that runs between mother and baby like an umbilical cord, intact. But that’s more stressful for the young plant than layering, which allows it to receive water and nutrients from the parent plant while it forms its own root system, with the stolon acting a bit like an umbilical cord. A baby that has already formed is cut free of the parent plant and the plantlet’s base is pressed into a pot of moist potting soil. In the average home, though, the spider plant (and other houseplants that self-layer in the wild) is usually propagated by cuttings. Cuttings and Beyond A spider plant can be propagated by pushing the base of a plantlet into a small pot of moist potting soil. All of these plants are mostly grown in hanging baskets in our homes, but they’re groundcovers in the wild. and others) and walking iris ( Neomarica spp.), also called apostle plant. sarmentosa), Boston fern ( Nephrolepis exaltata), episcia or flame violet (Episcia spp.), chain of hearts ( Ceropegia woodii), rabbit foot fern ( Davallia spp. That’s the case for such plants as strawberry begonia ( Saxifraga stolonifera, syn. Strawberries ( Fragaria spp.) and hen and chicks or houseleek ( Sempervivum spp.), for example, both do the same thing, creeping and rooting as they expand.Īnd there are a few other houseplants that produce creeping runners that allow them to self-layer when growing in their natural environment. The spider plant takes care of layering all on its own-this is called self-layering-or at least it does in the wild. Layering-a method of propagating plants by causing their shoots to take root while still attached to the parent plant. This method of multiplication is called layering. In some African forests, there is a carpet of spider plants as far as the eye can see! That’s because the babies take root when they touch the ground, then produce their own babies, which take root even further afield, producing more babies … and so on. It forms a dense carpet of arching lanceolate leaves, often covering large areas. In nature, this plant, widely distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa, is not at all aerial, but rather terrestrial. As proof, you’ll see small white star-shaped flowers with 6 tepals appearing here and there among the plantlets. ![]() Spider plant stolons are in fact modified flower stalks. ![]() And that’s been enough to make it tremendously popular for over 200 years. The spider plant ( Chlorophytum comosum) is quite an original hanging houseplant thanks to its long trailing stolons that produce a multitude of “babies” that hang in the air, creating an effect much like a curtain. The spider plant produces numerous plantlets that can be used for propagation.
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