Propagating Tropical Flowers

Sexual propagation of tropical plants involves seeds or spores. When two plants mix their genetic material, the result can be very different than the parent plants. Propagating tropical plants using seeds or spores is therefore exciting and often surprising, but not the best choice if you want the new plant to be exactly like the parent plant. This is especially true for hybrids.

Propagating tropical flowers from seeds or spores is easier if you know about the natural environment of the plant. It is quite common for seeds and spores to need some form of trigger to develop, and if you want them to grow in your home you may have to mimic this trigger or find ways to go around it. Three examples of such natural trigger are:

Seasonal changes between dry season and wet season. A seed can for instance require a dry resting period before it is ready to grow.

Passing through the digestive system of an animal.

Exposure to fire or smoke. This is common among plants from Australia, southern Africa and the North American west, since they are programmed to grow after forest fires when the soil is filled with nutrients and there is little competition from other plants.

Propagating tropical flowers asexually

Most plants can reproduce asexually and form clones of them selves. In addition to the natural methods, scientists have today developed other methods that can be taken advantage of by professional horticulturists, such as grafting and tissue culturing. Plant clones will contain the same genetic material as the parent plant, and propagating tropical plants is therefore very popular among professionals and hobbyists alike. Another advantage with the asexual propagations methods is that you do not have to wait for the plant to reach sexual maturity or obtain plants of the right sex (in cases where self-pollination is impossible). There are two different forms of asexual propagation: asexual seeds (apomixis) and vegetative reproduction. Vegetative reproduction takes places when a vegetative part of the plant results in a new plant, e.g. when a piece of the root is cut of and produces a new flower.

The most common techniques for propagating tropical flowers by vegetative methods are:

Striking or cuttings

Using stolons or runners

Using storage organs, e.g. bulbs, rhizomes, corms or tubers

Bud grafting

Division

During division, the plant is separated lengthwise into two or several parts. Each part gets a small part of the root and crown. This method is commonly used for propagating tropical plants that are herbaceous perennials.

Air layering and ground layering

During layering, a part of an aerial stem will grow its own roots while still being attached to the nurturing parent plant.

Grafting

During grafting, tissue from one plant will fuse with tissue from another plant. This method is commonly used for propagating tropical plants that grow as trees or shrubs.

Twin-scaling.

A damaged bulb can regenerate by forming smaller bulbs over the damaged surface. Twin-scaling makes it possible to multiply one bulb into 16 or 32 or even more bulbs in just a few years.

Micropropagation.

Micropropagation involves using plant tissue culture to rapidly multiplying a plant.

Propagating Tropical Flowers