Gardening Win: Root a Tradescantia in Water

A few weeks ago, I managed to snag a three-for-one deal at Costco. I picked up a Ric Rac (or Fishbone) cactus, a monstera minima, and a tradescantia nanouk in some matching pots. I was really excited about the Ric Rac cactus and didn’t even notice it was 3-for-1 until a worker told a lady next to me that she should take her pick. I picked up the Nanouk because there were really only three different plants available. It wasn’t until I got home that I noticed how pretty the leaves are.

Look how pretty those leaves are!

I thought the pot was sort of cramped, though. Plus, when I was looking up what this plant was, I saw that these are really easy to propagate. So, one afternoon when I was a little bored, I pulled the plant out of its pot and gave it a trim. I ended up cutting it into five different plants. Each part that I cut had several nodes (the spot where the leaves grow out of the stem). I popped two into little jars with water, just to see what would happen. I replanted the main plant in the original pot. For the other two, I put one in a pot and sat it on my plant shelf and one I put in another pot under a cloche (to see if the humidity helped it root).

Lo and behold, about a week later, one of them started developing roots. A few days later, the second one started developing roots but at the node that was up above the water. So, even if the piece isn’t fully in the water, it’ll still develop roots. If you’re new to propagating (like I am), it’s nice to try an easy plant like tradescantia so you can have some success. It doesn’t hurt that this Nanouk has some gorgeous leaves and having a few extras are always nice.