Rooting cuttings to clone your plants

There are so many plants you can grow from cuttings! I've done this with mint and basil for a long time, but this year I have also rooted pineapple sage, rosemary, petunias, and even lettuce!

There are two ways to grow new plants from cuttings. The first is the easiest (but slower and more likely to fail). Simply cut a stem from your plant. If there are flowers on your stem, pull them off. You want all the plant's energy to go toward generating roots and not toward anything else at first. Pull off any leaves right near the bottom.

For basil, mint, etc., you should cut just like you would to harvest/trim it (down to a spot with two leaves). 

Now, put the cutting in a glass of water. I finagled this cute little bowl just for this purpose to allow me to use short little cuttings. Change the water every few days to prevent mold from forming. After a little while (a few days to a few weeks depending on the plant), roots will form. Then, move the plant to some soil.

My cuttings bowl. A little glass bowl with a duct tape
grid to hold little plants in place. 

This year, for the first time, I tried using rooting hormone and allowing this whole process to occur directly in the soil. I've read that this will create stronger roots, and you don't have to transfer the plant while the roots are still fragile. I tried it out, and it went well! Now I have several new plants from my originals! Here is a step by step description of the root hormone method:

The supplies: cuttings in water (fresh cut is better, but
I had these in water for a day or two before trying this
method). The pineapple sage is the sad looking one.

This is the soil and rooting hormone I used.

Dip the tip in the rooting hormone. Put the hormone in a
dish so you don't transfer any diseases into your hormone
stock.

It will look like this.

Stick each stem into the soil. It helps to make a hole with
a chopstick or pencil before putting the plant in. Once
your pot is full, mist the leaves with water.

My two pots. The pot on the left has green leaf lettuce
(from the grocery store) and pineapple sage. The pot on
the right has basil, Thai basil, two kinds of mint, and
rosemary.

Cover the pot with a ziplock bag. Place the pot in a dish of
water. The soil will soak up water without becoming total
mush. Remove the ziplock bag 1-2 times per day for about
an hour so the leaves can air out. After the third or fourth
day like this,  leave the bag off longer. If the plants don't
wilt, you don't need the bag anymore! Roots are probably
growing!

About three days later. The plants look
healthy.

About three days later. The plants look healthy. The
wilted pineapple sage is coming back to life.

After 5-6 days, you can dig up your plants CAREFULLY
to see if they have roots. Once mine rooted, I transferred
them each to their own container.

You should be able to see the roots here.

Plant each little cutting with roots in its own container.

The rosemary does not have roots here. It actually took my
rosemary about a month to grow roots.

Cuttings in their own pots.

10 days from the start-in their own pots in the shade

10 days from the start-lettuce still doesn't have many roots
(and ultimately died)

10 days later-mint and pineapple sage looking good

Basil grown from a cutting-I transferred it into the big pot
with the tomato and basil. This picture was taken about
a month after rooting.

About a month later (and some petunias that were rooted
about a week before this picture). The rosemary JUST grew
roots and has been moved outside.