How do you propagate Porterweed?
You can pull them out easily and transplant them to increase your own bed, or pot them up and gift them away. You can also easily propagate them by stem cuttings that will show results in a couple of weeks. I have a blue Porterweed I have had for about 8 years.
What is the best way to take cuttings from plants?
Take summer cuttings by snipping the top few centimetres of new growth from plants. Remove the bottom few leaves of each cutting and push into a pot of moist but gritty compost. (You can use rooting powder to encourage root growth, but it’s usually not necessary.)
What plants can be rooted from cuttings?
Plants which can be successfully propagated from leaf cuttings include the following:
- African violet.
- Begonia rex.
- Cactus (particularly varieties producing “pads” like Bunnies Ears)
- Crassula (Jade Plant)
- Kalanchoe.
- Peperomia.
- Plectranthus (Swedish Ivy)
- Sansevieria.
Is porterweed native to Florida?
Plant Description: Porterweed is an annual in North Florida, but may overwinter if protected from the cold. The Florida native S. jamaicensis has a low- growing, sprawling habit and stays below 1 foot tall not including its blue-flowered spikes.
What is porterweed good for?
We don’t recommend it, but blue porterweed is reported to have a wide range of medicinal uses, from treating fungal infections to high blood pressure, colds, constipation, diarrhea, boils, burns, earache, headache, allergies, worms, and “nervous pains.”
How do you encourage the roots to grow from cuttings?
To promote root growth, create a rooting solution by dissolving an aspirin in water. 3. Give your new plant time to acclimate from water to soil. If you root your cutting in water, it develops roots that are best adapted to get what they need from water rather than from soil, Clark pointed out.
Should porterweed be trimmed?
You may want to trim the shrub occasionally to keep it shaped. Cut it back hard in spring (late March or early April) to encourage new growth to keep it full and bushy. Fertilize in spring, summer, and fall with a good granular fertilizer.
Is porterweed a host plant?
An evergreen perennial that blooms nearly year-round in many places, its blue flowers attract bees and butterflies. A host plant for the tropical buckeye, blue porterweed also attracts large orange sulphurs, clouded skippers, gulf fritillaries, red admirals, and julias.