HOW TO GROW A CHAIN OF HEARTS FROM A CUTTING

Chain of Hearts are a beautiful trailing plant that require minimal care and are pretty hard to kill so a great plant for anybody…including those of you who don’t have green fingers. They are from the succulent/cacti family I think which is why they do well with good drainage and minimal water.

My hubby bought me this one pictured below and it had about 3 or 4 short strands. It made itself at home on my shelf and not long after it was trailing down onto my couch getting caught up in my hair. I had to trim it and when I did so I thought why not try and grow another baby plant from the cuttings. I had researched it and found no luck with growing them from cuttings unless they had some little balls on them. Mine lacked balls so I was sceptical! But turns out its the easiest plant ever to grow from cuttings and I don’t know why nobody has written about how to do it before (or maybe they have and I just didn’t see it in my research phase).

From this mummy plant pictured, I have now successfully grown 5 baby plants. Every time it starts getting too long and needs a trim I just turn it into another baby!

So here it is…step by step instructions with pictures to help you cultivate a whole family of chain of hearts plants!

1. Take your cuttings from your main plant. I usually start each new plant with about 3-4 strands. Place these cuttings in a glass of water for a couple days.

I don’t know whether this makes a difference or not but I did it with my first baby to try and get it to root and although it didn’t root in the glass the plant survived so I have just always done this step for all the other babies.

2. Get a small plastic pot with drainage holes. I plant ALL my indoor plants in these so that it makes watering a breeze and transplanting simple when they get too big. It also allows me to change up their pretty pots and mix them up and change them around to get fresh new looks.

3. As I mentioned these babies love good drainage as they aren’t big water drinkers. So I lay a layer of small rocks in the bottom of the pot before placing in the soil.

4. I use a Cacti and succulent potting mix for these and it has good drainage and the soil doesn’t stay too moist. Fill up your little pot with this mix on top of the rocks.

5. Now its time to transplant these babies into their new home! I told you it was super easy!!Before I plant them I water the soil so that it is easy to work with.

6. Then I just use an old teaspoon and dig a little hole in the middle of the pot and place the strands in it. I cover them over and make sure they are securely planted in the pot.

7. And there you have it! a baby chain of hearts. I have grown 5 babies from my mummy plant and all have started out looking like this wee one, and now they are long and lush and growing beautifully. I water about once a week max and just leave them to do their thing. They don’t seem to be too fussy about where they live either. I have one in the sun, one in a darker spot that gets absolutely no direct sunlight and one in a covered area outside and they are all happy chappies.

This was my first baby once it took root and started to show some growth. Sometimes they do take a while to get growing, or one strand may be growing and another look like its died. Don’t worry about it, just leave it be! I have had a few that I thought weren’t going to make it and they actually start growing new growth halfway down the strand so you can just twirl it up and put the leafless part in the pot.

And here is what this baby looks like now. It is actually almost ready for a trim itself as I can see the kids catching it when they run past! So they thicken up and grow new strands off the sides of the existing ones as well, this just takes a bit more time compared to how quickly they grow in length.

I hope this has helped you! If you know someone who has one just beg, borrow or steal a couple strands and you will have your very own Chain of Hearts costing you a lot less than what it costs to buy one! I will be needing to trim mine so if you live nearby let me know and you can have some of my cuttings!

Tarryn
xx