Growing Houseplants

A Fun Activity for Kids

Nov 30, 2006 Elizabeth Yetter

Using houseplant guidebooks to teach children how to grow their own plants is fun and educational.

It began with a simple jade plant when I was 12-years-old. My mother taught me how to start new jade plants by removing a leaf and pressing the leaf into a pot of damp soil. My bedroom soon became a jungle of young, healthy jade plants, and I began giving them away to friends and family. People loved my jade plants so much that they began buying plants from me to give to their own friends and family as gifts.

Two decades later I am teaching my two children how to start new houseplants and how to sell them at yard sales and flea markets.

To begin, you will need a book or two about houseplants (check your local library), healthy parent plants, potting soil, and window space. A free to cheap source for plastic plant containers will also be necessary. Ask friends and relatives to save their plastic pots for you.

Below is a list of plants that are easy and usually quick to propagate. Most can be propagated year round.

Easy plants to grow, share, and sell:

Spider Plant (Chlorophytum comosum): Spider plants grow long stems, called runners, that bear a great number of plantlets. Simply cut the plantlet from the runner and plant it in a pot containing moist, rich potting soil.

Ti Plant (Cordyline terminalis): Remove a healthy leaf from the parent plant. Place the leaf stem in a cup of water. Transfer to potting soil when roots have formed.

Jade Plant (Crassula arborescens): New jade plants can be started from any of the still-green leaves that fall from the parent plant. Push the jade leaf gently into a pot of soil. Keep moist. Once the leaf has rooted, a plantlet will begin to grow from the parent leaf.

Devil's Ivy (Epipremnum aureum): Propagate devil's ivy by taking a healthy cutting from the parent plant. Remove lower leaves and place in cup of water. After the cutting has rooted, plant it in potting soil.

Creeping Fig (Ficus pumila): Take cuttings from the parent plant. Remove bottom leaves. Place cuttings in a cup of water. After the roots have formed, plant cuttings in individual pots or group the cuttings together in a hanging basket.

English Ivy (Hedera sp.): Propagate by stem cuttings. Cut a 3 to 4 inch stem from the parent plant. Remove bottom leaves and plant in moist potting soil.

Swedish Ivy (Plectranthus australis): New Swedish ivy plants can be started from cuttings. Remove bottom leaves and place in a cup of water. Plant in potting soil after roots have formed.

African Violet (Saintpaulia hybrids): Start new African violets by removing a healthy leaf from the parent plant. Plant the leaf in moist potting soil and place a clear plastic bag over the cutting to increase humidity. After the leaf has rooted a new plantlet will begin to grow at the base of the leaf. Remove the plastic bag and cut away the parent leaf.

Strawberry Geranium (Saxifraga stolonifera): This plant sends out threadlike stems that that produce many plantlets. Cut plantlets from the runners and plant in moist soil.

Arrowhead Plant (Syngonium podophyllum): Root cuttings in water. Plant in potting soil after roots appear.

Wandering Jew (Zebrina pendula): Root cuttings in water or in moist potting soil.

The copyright of the article Growing Houseplants in Children’s Books is owned by Elizabeth Yetter. Permission to republish Growing Houseplants in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Spider Plant