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Gardening: Out with the Old & Saving Some Dough
By Julie Loves Home on Sep 20, 2012
If you’re like me -eyeing the chrysanthemums at the local grocery store over the past few weeks but feeling guilty about getting rid of the overgrown, ragged although not yet dead planters on the front stoop, here’s a tip I discovered that might inspire:
It’s been cool here over the last couple of days and so I broke down and headed over to my local greenhouse and purchased three big healthy purple chrysanthemum plants for $8.99 each.
As I began yanking out the old summer plants, I realized they looked very similar to a house plant I purchased at home depot a few months ago. Turns out Kong Rose (or Solenostemon scutellarioides) along with other leafy plants many of us use to add dimension to our flower baskets, pots and borders may not survive the winter months but they do very well indoors as house plants!
House plant potential: What’s left of the summer plants after I yanked them out of the planters on my front stoop.
So before pitching those summer plants in the trash or the compost pile, salvage or snip of any parts of the plant that are still healthy looking. Fill a container/vase with water and drop them in. After a few days you should begin to see root tendrils… after three weeks there should be large enough roots to replant the stem in dirt.
You could also keep them permanently in the vase. The roots will keep growing so you will need to change the water often (and eventually trim them back), but it’s a really pretty not to mention inexpensive alternative to fresh flowers on your bedside -or even your thanksgiving table this year!
Happy Gardening!
Filed under: Decorating 
