Making More Plants: The Science,
Art, and Joy of Propagation by Ken
Druse
Propgation Elation
Generally, a gardening book that teaches practical skills is designed to
look more like a plain textbook than an artful coffee-table decoration, but
Ken Druse (The Natural Garden, The Collectors Garden) has changed
that with his gorgeous book Making More Plants. An invitation to examine
the miracle of birth in the botanical world is at the center of this book, and
youll be amazed and delighted as Druses photos and text bring this
astonishing world to life. Filling these pages are close-up photos of plants
at every stage of life and in every variety--pinecones, dried seed pods,
root and stem cuttings, ripe fruits, and lush flowers show off their unique
shapes and colors everywhere you look. Specific techniques are outlined
with both photos and text; from the spore prints of ferns to the nicking of
hard-shelled seeds, youll learn exactly how to tackle every aspect of
creating new plants. Careful attention is paid in the text to the timing of
taking different types of cuttings from different plants, and these practical
details will hopefully help curb any urgent desire to play Johnny
Appleseed with your favorite wildflowers until the season is exactly right.
Special projects like hardwood cutting and involving children in plant
propagation have small sections devoted to them; the African violet
project for youngsters is a fascinating introduction, and only slightly more
involved than that old carrot-top-in-a-dish-of-water project. For serious
gardeners who enjoy plants for more than their pretty flowers and

attractive shapes, this combination of science and beauty will supply both
inspiration and information. --Jill Lightner
Personal Review: Making More Plants: The Science, Art, and
Joy of Propagation by Ken Druse
`Making More Plants' by leading horticultural journalist Ken Druse is a
glossy and inviting introduction to virtually all different kinds of plant
propagation available to the home gardener. It is both more extensive and
less intensive than the excellent `The New Seed Starters Handbook' by
Nancy Bubel, which is a humble trade paperback which; however, covers
starting plants from seed in much more detail than Maestro Druse's
oversized volume.
While Bubel has more information on seeds for less money, this should not
turn you away from Druse' book for the very simple reason that starting
new plants from seed is only one of several different ways of increasing
your store of a great variety of plants. And, for many plants, `asexual'
propagation is far more successful than planting seeds.
One aspect of Druse' book one should not underestimate is reflected in his
subtitle, `The Science, Art, and Joy of Propagation'. This means this book
is at least as much a pep talk and sermon about the pleasures of
propagation as it is about understanding and technique. One thing I
especially appreciate about the book is the fact that Druse does all of his
own photography. I may be imagining this, but I sense a better than
average effectiveness in the way the photographs capture the author's
points. This alone is not sufficient to buy the book, but it all adds up to
making this `pretty' book well worth the money.
What really surprises me is the number of different propagation techniques
the author covers. The list is:
Hunting and Gathering. Wait, this isn't a `propagation' technique per se,
but it is a method by which one can increase the variety of plants in your
garden. So, like cooking with wild game and wild mushrooms, this is all
part of the big picture of plant collecting.
Conditioning. A preparation for and understanding of the various aspects
of seed planting. This is one of those `science' chapters.
Sowing. The main event for growing plants from seed.
Vegetative Reproduction. The general term for `asexual' (not from seeds)
propagation.
Cuttings. The most common method for starting a new plant from a piece
of an established plant. The paradigm of this method is the parable of the
old man sticking a green branch into the ground at random and having it
`miraculously' develop into a tree.
Leaves. Similar to cuttings, but only available for a smaller number of
plants, primarily evergreens, succulents, and tropical plants.
Layering. This is the way nature does asexual reproduction with a lot of
plants. The most easily visualized example, at least for us older folks, is

the spider plant, which develops complete little plants at the ends of its
spider-leg like vines.
Grafting. This is not so much propagation as a method for improving a
plant or combining two to get the better of two worlds. The most famous
grafting use was the grafting of European wine grape varieties onto hearty
American rootstock, when a disease wiped out the European grape plants.
Division. Another example of man imitating nature. Probably the most
common method used by occasional amateur gardeners.
Geophytes. I find it amazing that the author includes this chapter, as I
would have thought it difficult to the point of impossibility to artificially
propagate ferns from the tiny spores that preceded seeds in the
evolutionary development of sexual propagation techniques.
Roots. Very similar to layering and division, and most commonly used
method for certain types of grasses.
For a `pretty' book, this volume has remarkably good appendices. By far
the best is the long list of `Resources' with addresses, telephone numbers,
and sketches for dozens of plant sources in the United States, Canada,
and the UK. Unfortunately, there are few web sites, but any web jockey
worth their salt should be able to track down these companies with their
favorite search engine.
This is an excellent first book for the amateur, and an excellent source of
daydreams while reading in January and February as you sit among your
piles of seed catalogues which are probably flooding your mailbox right
about now.
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