Deth

A few years ago, our milkweed got trampled by the neighbor’s kids. Same kids that played football in our strawberries, but that’s another thing and not relevant here. It was in the spring when the shoots were maybe about six or eight inches tall. Most of them were crushed.

There was on shoot that was a pretty clean break and mostly intact. I had remembered growing plants from cuttings using just water or rooting hormones and dirt. We did not have the rooting stuff, but water is available, so I decided to do an experiment.

I made a cleaner cut and removed the lower leaves and stuck the stem in a cup with a few inches of water. Molly thought I was crazy for even attempting it.

After a few weeks, I noticed the white roots forming on the bottom of the stem and shortly after that I planted it in soil, and it continued to grow.

It really surprised me that it even worked, considering the stem had been broken off the night before and laid on the ground most of the next day before I came up with the idea to even try it. We’d planted it in someone’s yard for them, and it grew pretty good considering it’s start, until someone helpfully weed whacked it for her. They didn’t know that it was planted on purpose.