Foreign We are covered in snow and the Temperature Outdoors during Midday is about minus two degrees Centigrade so we're having a very coarse Spell so why am i showing you this I'm showing you this because this is the Conservatory where we keep our tender Plants tropical plants so these are the Focuses mainly Ficus reducer in all Sorts of sizes and we also have some Crassulas So This is where we keep These tender plants and the temperature That we maintain in here is about Between five degrees at night time To about I would say 10 or 15 in the daytime depending on how Powerful the radiators are so we've got Here Jade trees Focuses Tamarind And also some Pepper trees Remember that when you keep these trees Indoors don't forget to water it so this Is what Tracy is doing here she's Checking that all the trees Are moist Not overly wet but they shouldn't be Bone dry or powder dry so this is how You keep the focuses and other tropicals
In the winter And of course if you keep it in the Living room that's a good environment But make sure they don't get too hot and Too dry I'm also going to show you something Else while I'm here And I'll get someone to hold the camera Now while I'm in this Conservatory I Thought I'd show you Some of the experiments I did in the Summer I'm sure you will remember that I pruned That great big Ficus which is in here Because we have to overwinter them here And I did experiments with cuttings Using sand Which these are in And also using water So I haven't cheated I haven't looked at All so this is probably two months so Let's see whether they've rooted I think You may need to zoom in to show The moment of truth So I'm pulling them out and look at the Roots on that In two months look at the roots in pure Sand Pure sand look at the roots marvelous So these are the results of rooting it And I'm going to show you the experiment I did with water Many people said you can't root it in Water because you would make it rot
Again I haven't cheated let's show you What's happening look at the roots on That Just in pure water and they're not Rotting at all they're growing but I Will pop them up because I can't leave Them in here forever So most of these some have got more Roots than others See these ascending aerial roots from The top so you can see Water is quite an effective medium For rooting So there are all sorts of different ways Of propagating These pressures And now if we walk over carefully I will Show you the great big Crassulated We pruned It is making a lot of growth In the distance there And if we come close I will show you all The new growth that is occurring Many people laughed at me and said oh He's hacked about but you've got to be Patient if you come in close look at all These new Shoots that have come from the old wood So this is what happens you're gonna get Literally scores if not hundreds of These little shoots which will become Branches and then we can choose which to Keep which to discard
So from even the very very old wood I Can see lots of new growth coming so These are hopeful signs There's some more cuttings that I've Made so this was potted in hakadama So akadama also works oh I can feel the Roots I don't need to pull it off They're certainly rooted I would in fact Get the stuff to pop them on Individually Look at the beautiful Roots look at These beautiful roots All rooted in that So This is the experiment which has been Successful I will show you something Else as well all right that's true today But the branches which are just Suspended in air they've got Roots as Well So you don't even have to put it in soil Or water These plants which are part of the Bryophilum genus I think or family they Can root in air If you break a leaf and leave it on your Sideboard or on a table over a couple of Months you will find little plants Emerging from the edge of the leaf so The propagating of the This is the crassula Is very easy I'm trying to find a leaf Which will have rooted because very very Often
The leaves tend to root See that that leaf there If you can see closely from the edges There I will keep it here in fact they Will eventually send Roots out so I will Watch this with interest oh that's Another little one Look at this plant This was just a trick that fell on the Pot and you can see the little root over There So they're all Roots so they're very Easy to make and this will make an ideal Mommy plant Ah look at this this is exactly what I Was talking about can you see that leaf There And The Roots which are coming from the Edge of the leaf And then that is the embryo small plant So they propagate just from a leaf Cutting like that So I hope you've learned something from This [Music] Foreign
