The First Draft

Getting plants in the mail is kind of iffy. And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t worry! I have examples. I LOVE my succulent subscription, but I can’t help but be sad when my plants come in less-than-intact condition.

One plant I was particularly worried about was a ghost plant I got in October… it came, and it was completely broken off the stem! I am a relatively new plant mom, so I had no idea what to do. The company my subscription is from is great about working with people for replacements, but what about the plant I already have? This list is about how I saved it, and how you can do it to!

It was a pretty clean break, so the company thought it would survive, and they weren’t wrong! BUT I did give it a little extra help. One of my friends suggested I try water propagation, and after some research, I made my own little makeshift setup with a glass food storage container, some water and a ziploc bag. Basically just stuff I could easily find.

I took the stem that had broken off, and broke a leaf off of it just in case. Ghost plants can propagate from leaves so I figured if the main plant didn’t make it the leaf might! Then I poked holes in my ziplock bag and slid the leaf and stem through them. They were close to the water, but not necessarily touching it. Soon, I started to see roots!

It took a bit longer for the roots to develop on the leaf, as it had to heal and then start to grow roots. Soon the roots were developed enough for it to be planted, and then it was just waiting for the leaf to grow enough to be okay outside of the water. The whole process (for the leaf) took a little over a month, with them going in to the propagation set-up on November 6 and it was officially repotted on December 14, after its rosette had fully developed and its leaf had pretty much completely died.

I’m still new to plants, so I write this hoping that it can help out some other people who are new to plants. There may be better ways, BUT this worked for me as a first-time propagator of a tiny little succulent. (And I didn’t have to buy anything new to get it done! The plants made it into the water as fast as possible.)

Since the ghost plant success, I have added in some jelly bean plant leaves that broke off my plant during transit, and I’m attempting to do the same thing with a chocolate drop succulent. Fingers crossed it goes as well as it did with the ghost plant!