Aeonium 'zwarkop'

[Eric Williams]

My plant is in flower, will I lose this stem ? Also is this the best time of the year to take cuttings as its a Winter grower. Any tips on rooting cuttings are

welcome. Thanks Pic. is from an iPad which gives orientation problems I cannot solve. Cheers

[juster]

Spectacular flowers Eric, but yes you will lose that head. You have several side shoots there, I don't find they are difficult to root and I'm sure they will be fine if done now. I just let them callus over for a few days and pop them into very slightly damp compost. You might need to prop them up for a while if they are top heavy.

[Eric Williams]

Thanks Juster, and yes I have many side shoots unseen on another stem behind the stem in the pic. I will lremove a few and do as you suggest. Cheers ps the plant started out as a 4inch cutting, it's nearly 4foot high now lol.

[ralphrmartin]

Hi Eric

Normally, if you behead one of these, the stump will start generating lots of new heads. Let them grow to a couple of inches across, then chop them off, and stick in compost. They root pretty easily.

It might not work so well on a flowering head as the plant, or at least that stem, has switched from "grow" mode to "flower itself to death mode", but when not flowering, and looking a bit like a palm tree, is when I do it.

Anyway, it looks like you have non-flowering heads there you could lop off and root down.

Ralph