Seven ways to get free plants

NUMBER ONE

Some plants are well suited to be divided. I received this beautiful peony when my grandmother divided her peonies in the front garden. Divide peonies by digging up the entire plant and shaking off the excess dirt. Then use a sharp knife to divide the plant into clumps. Each section should have three to five buds to thrive. See this Iowa State University article for more information on dividing peonies.

NUMBER TWO

Embrace volunteers. Volunteers are plants that are self seeded. This means you didn’t do anything, they just showed up! The fern to the right was self seeded and I thought a beautiful addition to the garden.

NUMBER THREE

Embrace “weeds.” I like to consider weeds as another brand of ‘volunteers.’ When you start thinking that way, you realize how beautiful they are.

Another beautiful and tiny ‘weed’ that popped up in the front garden

NUMBER FOUR

This sunflower blossomed beneath our bird feeder. Since I didn’t plant any sunflowers, I’m guessing it was from our bird seed, which included sunflower seeds! So it’s just another example of letting the garden do its thing, and getting free plants out of it.

NUMBER FIVE

Propagation is time honored method of growing plants for free. You can propogate a plant by cutting a mature plant and placing the cutting in water or soil. Once in water or soil it will grow a new root system.

See this Washington Post article for a more in depth explanation of taking cuttings from house plants.

NUMBER SIX

Keep an eye on your local library, and gardening clubs. They are often a great resource for getting free plants. See the left photo for an example of an event that the Free Library of Philadelphia put on.

NUMBER SEVEN

My local nursery would often give away plants that were past their prime. Often I found if they were put in good soil, and given a healthy watering they would bounce right back. So check your local nursery to see if they do something similar.