Propagating Isn’t Pretty

This contraption is really ugly, but garshdarnit, I’m going to blog about it. There’s just so much cute around here, anyway, that it’s about time that homely had its day. The photo is of a propagation vessel based on something called a Forsyth pot, something that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen but that I gather is a specialized container with a slow-watering component and well-suited to propagating plants by stem cuttings. I hope I don’t sound pedantic, but I am pretty psyched that I’m retaining more information more readily than I have since I was 10 and mad-crazy about ponies.

So, I read about making this Forsyth-on-the-fly in one of my gardening books and subsequently raided my mother’s pot stockpile for the appropriate pieces: a wide, flat pot and any old terra-cotta pot. I spent a couple days (!) figuring out how to plug up the drainage hole more or less successfully (that’s aluminum foil). Then I put in vermiculite and cuttings from plants I’m either (a) champing at the bit to have more of (lavender), or (b) just kind of daring to make themselves anew (coleus, prostrate rosemary). I am more or less fervently hoping that these things will form roots and become viable on their own.

I tried propagating lavender a week or so ago by layering, but then read that that’s not the best way — this is. Dunno. I just want a lot of lavender that I can guerrilla-plant along the back access door of the local CVS. Don’t worry, Ma, it’s a project of beautification!