When I was a kid, our backyard was full of irises. But not just any irises. Irises grown from cuttings of my grandmother’s irises. Long after she sold her house, moved into an apartment, and left her garden and its hundreds of irises behind, her irises lived on at our place.

As a crazy lover of plants, it’s not a huge stretch to imagine I like plant presents. But there is one type of plant present I love most of all: cuttings. For all sorts of plants, all you have to do is cut off a stem, put it in water, and wait for it to put out little root hairs. Then you put the new shoot in soil, and voila! You have a copy of the original. (With irises and other related plants, you simply divide the underground root).

If you’re looking for a thrifty, thoughtful gift for someone this holiday, I say CUTTINGS!  It’s such a lovely way to share, and it creates such a real and vital connection. The very same little plant that brings you such happiness can brighten your friend’s windowsill. CUTTINGS! Man, I love them.

For nearby friends and family, you can present the new plant in a little pot with a sweet little bow. For postal-distance loved ones, here’s a little how to.

Remember all those types of mint I had growing? Earlier this summer, I took cuttings from each of them and sent them to my friend Jason in Rhode Island. That’s them up above, in plastic floral tubes, all ready for shipping.

Let’s see what happened when they arrived in Providence, shall we?

There they are on the left, coming out of their box. And that’s them again on the right, getting a little more water time to encourage their roots, post-arrival.

You don’t have to send yours in floral tubes, but here’s why I shipped mine that way:

1. They hadn’t put out enough hairs for me to plant them yet. It actually took the cuttings several weeks to send out any root hairs at all, and I was getting impatient. So I decided to ship them as they were and let Jason do rest of the waiting on his end. If your cuttings are nice and rooted, you can go ahead and send them in pots.
2. I might have been able to get away with wrapping the tips of the cuttings in moist paper towels, but I didn’t want to chance it. Mail from New York to Rhode Island can take a few days. If you’re overnighting your beauties, a paper towel might be all you need to keep the roots moist.
3. Despite the fact that the post office made me swear there wasn’t any liquid inside the package, it was just a little liquid, and it was so tightly sealed and wrapped! So I figured maybe I could bend the rules a little bit…. Please forgive me if you work for the USPS and you’re reading this right now. I would like to continue to use your services for years to come.

In the end, not all of the cuttings made it. But the apple mint and chocolate mint came through like stars! And now Jason and I are mint brothers. (Like blood brothers, but fresher). 

A few final things you should know…

As you might have gleaned, it can take a while for a stem to put out roots. After the arrival of the mint, Jason had the orange mint in water for a FULL MONTH before it sent out roots hairs. So don’t give up if it takes longer than you think. And you might want to get started now if you want to have any hope of sharing before Christmas.

Rooting hormone can be your friend. You can buy it in powder form at garden stores. Put in a little powder in the water the stem is sitting in, and you can speed the process along.

Happy Cutting!

Tags: cuttings, gift ideas, mint