The Flaming Käthchen (botanically correct Kalanchoe blossfeldiana) is very popular as a houseplant, as it brings color into the home with its colorful flowers. The thick-leaf plant is usually only cultivated as an annual because it is often difficult to achieve further flowering in subsequent years. However, you can ensure a tireless supply yourself by propagating the Flaming Cat through cuttings.
How to propagate a Flaming Kitten?
The Flaming Cat (Kalanchoe blossfeldiana) can be propagated by leaf or shoot cuttings. The cuttings are planted in cactus soil and kept slightly moist. Alternatively, you can also grow Flaming Käthchen from seeds by sowing the seeds between January and March and germinating them in a greenhouse at 20-25 °C.
How to propagate with leaf cuttings
Like many other thick-leaved plants, the Flaming Käthchen can be propagated quite easily using leaf or shoot cuttings. For leaf cuttings, cut individual leaves. Feel free to take several, because experience has shown that not all of them take root. The best time to take cuttings is spring. Continue as described:
- First let the interfaces of the cuttings dry for a day.
- Now plant them with the cut side down in cactus soil.
- You can also use a homemade mixture of potting soil and sand.
- Feel free to put several leaves in a plant pot.
- You don't need to plant the leaves deep - about half a centimeter to a centimeter deep is enough.
- Keep the cuttings slightly moist – do not overwater!
- Do not place a PET bottle or similar over it to create tense air.
- The increased humidity will only cause the cuttings to mold.
- Place the planter warm and bright, but not directly sunny.
After three to six months, the new leaves and shoots finally appear, which mostly grow out of the interfaces.
Propagate Flaming Käthchen using shoot cuttings
The propagation of the Flaming Käthchen using shoot cuttings works in a similar way to that described using leaf cuttings. Instead of individual leaves, just cut off shoots about ten centimeters long with several leaves and plant them as well as the leaves. The new leaves and shoots will sprout from the places where there are already leaves.
Sowing Flaming Kitten
With a little patience, Flaming Käthchen can also be propagated by seeds or grown yourself from commercially available seeds. However, this method is quite time-consuming and not always successful, which is why it is better to use cuttings to propagate for home use. If you still want to try it, you can proceed as follows:
- Sow the fine seeds between January and March.
- Ideal for growing is cactus soil (€12.00 on Amazon) or a soil-sand mixture.
- The seeds germinate best under glass, i.e. H. in an indoor greenhouse.
- The temperature should be between 20 and 25 °C.
- After about eight weeks you should prick out
- and after the third pair of leaves they are transferred to small individual pots.
Tip
Please note that the Flaming Käthchen only blooms when it receives a maximum of nine hours of light per day at temperatures of 16 to 20 °C - after all, it is a so-called short-day plant.
