I am a plant person, fully and without shame about it. My house is packed with indoor plants, and for the longest time I have wanted English ivy in the mix, the kind that spills down a wall and turns it into something alive. That is how I see all my plants, less decoration, more slow green art project that I get to be smug about later.
The annoying part, my local nursery has not stocked any ivy in ages. Then it clicked, I already have a whole wall of the stuff running along my courtyard. Free plants, sitting right there, quietly getting on with life while I paid actual money elsewhere. So I set about learning how to grow English ivy from a cutting, and here is how it went.
1. find the ivy and snip a cutting
My courtyard back wall is basically one big ivy situation, so this step was easy. Find a decent length of it with new growth on the end, the bit with all the little baby tendrils. If you look along the stem you will see tiny triangular folds, roughly every inch or so.
Snip your cutting just above one of those folds, that is what gives you a good clean cutting. Go for a long piece if you can, because you can chop it into a few smaller sections for potting later.
2. pick your rooting method
There are two ways to root an ivy cutting, in water or in soil, and I tried both because I could not decide and I have no self control. Each one has its trade offs.
Water rooting lets you actually watch the roots develop, which is very satisfying, and the cuttings can sit happily in water for a good while. The catch, moving the cutting into soil afterwards is fiddly, and fewer of them survive the transplant. Soil rooting is the opposite. It is harder to tell when anything is happening under there, and it needs a bit more attention, but repotting later is much easier because the roots are already at home.
2a. growing ivy in soil
Strip the leaves off the bottom half of the cutting, so the part you are burying is bare. Get a small pot ready with a sand and soil mix. Plant at least three cuttings while you are at it, because some will not make it and you want the odds on your side.
Make a deep hole with a pencil. Grab some cutting powder, which is a rooting hormone, from a plant or hardware shop. Follow whatever the packet says, since they vary a little. Mine wanted me to dip the stem in water first, then into the powder, then into the hole. Firm the soil around the cutting, and repeat for the rest.
Put the pot somewhere warm and shaded and keep the soil moist. It can take three to six weeks to root, so do not lose hope, and do not go digging it up to check, I know you want to. Softer stems root faster, woody ones take their time. For a little greenhouse effect, pop a plastic bag over the pot to keep the air nice around it.
2b. growing ivy in water
Same as before, take the leaves off the bottom half of the cutting. Fill a clear glass with lukewarm, unchlorinated water, so bottled water or water from a stream or well is ideal. The clear glass matters, because half the fun is watching.
Sit the cutting in the glass and put it somewhere warm and sunny. Then you wait, which is the hard bit, but you will actually see the roots start to appear.
That is the whole thing, really. Free ivy, a bit of patience, and eventually a wall that looks like it belongs in a much fancier house than mine. I am very keen to watch mine take over, and I will report back once it does something worth photographing.
Have you ever grown a plant from a cutting, ivy or anything really? How did you go?
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