Propagation and Procreation Summary

As you can see, the ability to successfully use sexual reproduction to propagate a plant can be a roll of the dice. 'Who' the plant is (its morphological characteristics), 'how' it can be pollinated, 'where' it is located in space and time, 'when' pollination occurs and 'what' conditions the seed encounters all affect the success of reproduction. Vegetative reproduction methods allow propagation of plants that cannot easily be reproduced by seed and will produce exact genetic replicas of the parent plant. Hybrid plants developed through selection are then often vegetatively propagated. Understanding propagation has a direct economic impact on the landscape and nursery industry, and can help create that `aha’ moment for homeowners and gardeners who want to successfully produce plants themselves.