Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Propagating Plants: How to Create New Plants for Free

Rate this book
Are you interested in growing your own plants from scratch? This reference book will teach you how to propagate virtually every type of plant.

If you're a thrifty gardener who wants more plants for free, then this book is perfect for you! From fruit trees and ornamental shrubs to exotic orchids and succulents, get all the info you'll need to propagate plants at your fingertips.


Discover the experts' secrets to perfecting plant propagation with this easy-to-follow gardening manual. A horticulturist's delight, this new edition features more than 1,800 detailed illustrations and photos that show both practical step-by-step gardening techniques and the plants themselves.

How long do your seedlings need to germinate? What makes a healthy stem cutting? How do you know what type of rootstock to use when grafting plants? Find out the answer to these questions and more in the most comprehensive guide to propagating plants ever published.

From palms and roses to culinary herbs and conifers, each chapter contains popular and botanically interesting plant groups. Explore the modes of propagation that are unique to the featured plants. Learn about their characteristic ways of reproduction and how these are exploited in various techniques. The techniques are fully illustrated with step-by-step photographs and explanatory artworks. The plants' special needs are discussed, with expert tips on how to achieve success.
This gardening book is crammed with hundreds of step-by-step tutorials and clear advice, ranging from straightforward and simple to more in-depth. The rating system in the plant-by-plant A-Z dictionaries provides you with a quick reference to the relative ease or difficulty of each method of propagation.

Fill Your Garden with Beautiful Plants for Next-To-Nothing

Plant propagation is a fun, rewarding and inexpensive way to add shrubs to your garden or multiply your collection of houseplants. This book helps you successfully reach your goals while steering you clear of common mistakes. It's an indispensable reference book for every propagator's bookshelf.

Use this comprehensive gardening guide

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

63 people are currently reading
346 people want to read

About the author

Alan R. Toogood

122 books3 followers

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
113 (55%)
4 stars
62 (30%)
3 stars
24 (11%)
2 stars
3 (1%)
1 star
3 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
283 reviews
July 1, 2019
Really through guide to propagation. It lists just about everything you can imagine or buy in a store. I think it's only missing carnivorous plants but has detailed guides for every thing else. I really liked the history of plant propagation included, as I have always wondered how people in the past gardened or invented these techniques. Definitely a good book to keep on the shelf if you want to branch out into propagation.
503 reviews1 follower
November 10, 2021
Another good book about propagation, pretty much more around how to propagate everything (trees, scrubs, flowers, cactus etc.) The book also went into debt about grafting. Would of liked a few chapters specifically about herbs but the flower part of the book was interesting.
Profile Image for Lunnaku.
244 reviews8 followers
June 17, 2021
Fantastic book with a lot of great details, I learned a quite a bit. My only complaint is that I wish it had details on when/how plants can be triggered for flowering.
286 reviews1 follower
January 3, 2023
Super in depth book that covers a wide variety of plants and how you can propagate them by a variety of methods. The book is broken up into sections based on what kind of plant you want to propagate including trees, shrubs, and a variety of smaller plants such as flowers and succulents.

Will definitely be buying a copy of my own for future reference.
7 reviews
June 27, 2020
Guide to propagating plants

Guide is perfect I gave 4 stars just because it is not optimized properly to run on the kindle. Had to read the book using my smart phone . Other than that the the book is perfect.
238 reviews1 follower
September 17, 2020
I was really excited about this book but found it a little too technical for a casual gardener looking to increase her house plants.
Profile Image for Landon Coleman.
Author 5 books15 followers
January 15, 2022
More science than a guy like me can follow in the early chapters. Great guides for how to propagate different varieties of plants. Good photos.
Profile Image for Cherie.
3,996 reviews37 followers
July 7, 2022
Lots of clear pics and info on all kinds of plant propagating! So much info in here - wonderful reference.
Profile Image for David.
160 reviews
October 1, 2023
Enough information in here to keep me refering back for a long time to come.
387 reviews34 followers
September 24, 2025
Propagating Plants by Alan Toogood is a colorful and comprehensive encyclopedia on making more plants based on their preferences, whether through seeds, cuttings, division, or other methods. This book is detailed; it leaves no pots unwatered and weeds unpulled in its explanations of what each plant prefers, helping readers learn that it’s not always just snipping a stem off a plant and sticking it in mud.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.