Pink Polka Dot Cuttings

I have this really beautiful houseplant called a Pink Polka Dot Plant. It's one of my favorite plants I own. I thought about buying another one, but don't really have the money. They are like $5 up at the local nursery, and I haven't been able to find them anywhere else. That said, I got the brilliant idea to take a cutting from it, a couple weeks ago. I had no idea what I was doing, so I snipped off a stem from it, and dunked it in a container full of soil. The funny thing, is that it hasn't even wilted, and it's not sprouting any new roots like I thought it would. It's been several weeks since, and the mother plant is just flourishing and growing like crazy. So, I thought I'd try again, this time - doing a little research.

Apparently, there is a special root hormone mixture that you are supposed to use for plant cuttings. I did not know this. A trip to check out how much this root hormone cost, proved disappointing. The hormone cost more than what I'd pay to buy a new plant, so that idea was out. A little more research later, I found a free alternative to root hormones - willow tea! You make this by taking leaves and branches from a willow tree, chopping them up and brewing them as you would normal tea to drink.

One problem with this: I don't have a willow tree. My intention was to walk around a park down the street, which had a small lake area and find a willow, cut a few branches off, and run away. Tyler and I walked ALL the way around the lake, which was definitely more than a few miles (probably?), and couldn't find a single willow. Disappointed, and driving home, we spotted a willow tree in someone's backyard... only a couple blocks away. The awesome thing was that this willow was drooping over their fence, and out past the sidewalk. Hey, it's over the property line, it's free taking, right? Well, we waited until the middle of the night, walked the couple blocks with scissors in hand, and snipped off several branches.



I came home, coarsely chopped the leaves, and some of the branches, boiled water, and made my willow tea (yes, those are sour cream containers, and a pasta sauce jar - we are too cheap to buy plastic-ware, so we reuse containers food comes in). It's suggested to steep them for 24 hours, so that's what I did. I put the lids on after the 24 hours were up, and put them in the fridge. Good thing is that the tea will be good for 2 months in the refrigerator, so I won't have to worry about stealing more willow for the next couple months.

This morning, I got up early, and started to get things ready for taking cuttings. I put some of the tea in a little measuring cup I have, and intended to only cut one piece off the plant. But once I really looked at it, I thought I'd trim it up a little bit more. It's been growing really well, and was in need of a little trimming, anyway.



I ended up with 4 cuttings. I dropped them in the tea, with the intent to leave them soaking for 24 hours, as my research suggested. I went off and watched TV for a few hours, and came back to check on them. They were already starting to wilt! I made a mad dash to make up a couple seedling pots out of toilet paper rolls, and planted them. A little spritz of water with the spray bottle seemed to help them perk back up once potted. I'm hoping that they root, and I'll have 4 more little polka dot plants!