Propagating pachysandra

When I decided several years ago to plant pachysandra (Pachysandra terminalis) as a ground cover in two shady spots in my yard, I didn’t run out to the garden center to buy flats of cuttings. I knew from my grandmother that it would be easy to start my own cuttings for free.

With permission from my pachysandra-rich neighbor, I went next door with a laundry basket and snipped off the tips (down to the first leaf juncture) of about 200 to 300 shoots. I brought them home and stuck them, in bunches of 25, into wide-mouthed glass jars filled with water and placed the jars in a shady spot. In three to four weeks, the cuttings had sprouted enough roots to be planted out.

Because the areas that I wanted the pachysandra to cover were large, it took a number of years for me to complete the project. About three times during the growing season, from April to August, I visited my neighbor’s patch and came away with a full basket. Today, thanks to a little bit of effort on my part and my neighbor’s generosity, I have my own thriving pachysandra patches.