Rooting and Over-wintering Annuals

This impatien plant seeded at the end of last summer. I brought it into the house before frost and grew it in my kitchen window. It bloomed all winter long. By spring, it was quite large, so I took cuttings to root in water. Impatiens are easy to root simply by putting cuttings in water. It takes about a week or two. 

I also overwintered these coleus from plants I grew from seed last year. I took cuttings in the fall and put them in water. Coleus are probably one of the easiest plants to root in water. I overwintered them as well, planting them in this container in June.

Rooting annuals from cuttings is one easy way to keep costs down in the garden. Another advantage is you will get a plant exactly like the one from which you took cuttings, so you can control the look of the plants in your garden. I've also done this with petunias and geraniums. I have also saved seeds from all these annual plants. I do find cuttings to be more successful than seeds. It is much quicker and less mess and fuss. Cuttings root the fastest in the spring, especially with geraniums, but this method works almost any time of year.