In an effort to expand my succulent collection and possibly someday propagate and sell unusual specimens, I’ve been teaching myself about taking cuttings from succulents and rooting them with the hopes of having regular success. Generally speaking, this category of plants is pretty easy to get rooted, though somewhat slow to put on new growth initially. Some genera are straightforward; they put out “offsets” or “pups” – essentially miniature forms of the more mature plant – that can swiftly be plucked off and rooted to grow a new plant. In fact, several species practically kick off their young’uns themselves, as in the case of my thimble cactus (Mammillaria fragilis), which makes these plants highly successful at spreading about in their native environments. In other cases, such as the two Agave victoriae-reginae I bought recently, the plants really don’t want to let go of those offsets. I used a flathead screwdriver to carefully wedge the offsets away from the mother plant. Most of my A. victoriae-reginae offsets already had roots at their base so I was able to immediately pot them up in a loose sandy media, all of which have rooted into their pots and are putting on noticeable growth today.
