Years ago propagation was usually done from suckers or from seed, but without doubt the most successful method is by using small ‘cuttings’ taken off strong shoots on a healthy parent plant. I have used the inverted commas because they are not really cuttings at all, but small pieces stripped off the parent shoot. They should be between 2 inches to 1 inch and no longer. Do not use a knife to remove them but gently tear them off downwards. This always ensures that a small piece of older stem comes off at the base of the ‘cutting,’ and this is very important. Don’t trim it off, but leave it, and cover it with rooting powder just before you insert it. An old plant of dwarf ixora will yield dozens and dozens of small shoots, and in order that they do not dry out carry a plastic bag with you. As you take them off the parent plant drop them straight into the bag to prevent them from drying out.
The cutting bed ought to be in the shade, and the very best rooting media for dwarf ixora cuttings and many other plants is pure sand. Make sure that it is clean and level. After dipping each cutting into rooting powder, make a small hole with the finger, or a pencil or proper ‘dibber’ and insert the young shoots two inches apart in rows which are two inches apart. Try using your fingers when doing a job like this, and use your fingers also to press down on the sand to the side of the cuttings to firm them in, levelling the sand to erase the finger marks as you go along. The most important task after inserting the cuttings is to give them a really good watering (perhaps flooding would be a better term) with a can with a fine ‘rose’ on it, to get the sand into the closest contact with the base of the shoots as possible. Afterwards it’s just a matter of watering occasionally, and waiting and watching. A few weeks should see roots being formed, after which they’ll have to be potted off into small 3½ inch pots. May your God go with you wherever you live.
