Received a Plant
Don’t worry – all is forgiven. I have had many plants die under my care. My hope is that you at least try to care for it with basic needs – water, light and perhaps occasional fertilizer. You may even surprise yourself when it begins to grow! If your plant happens to die, one of the beautiful things about this idea is that your plant will undoubtedly live on through other cuttings in other locations. Isn’t that cool? You have nothing to lose!
I KNOW, right? It seems like it might be overwhelming. I completely understand your concern, but ask that you give it a try anyway. You may find that involving your family in nurturing this plant will give you some joy. As you all watch it grow and eventually share it yourselves, you will all experience a great sense of joy in sharing and giving to others.
Your free membership to Plantcestry will include the ability to record your plant’s location information. Don’t worry – your address will not be visible. We will only track locations publicly by zip code. You will also be able to add family members to your account if they have cuttings or their own plants. You will be able to post photos if you like, and post comments on your experience or to ask questions of the group.
In the near future, Plantcestry will include individual and family memberships for a reasonable fee which will allow you and family members to start your own original plant and track its cuttings. Depending upon how it goes, there will be new features based on your and others’ feedback.
Don’t worry. If you accept a plant, it will take a while to grow big enough to propagate, so just enjoy it while it grows! When you’re ready you can find lots of information on the internet about sharing it, or check out our Share a Plant FAQ’s and our growing resources section for helpful information.
Share a Plant
Your gifted plant will be small and will take some time to grow into a plant big enough for dividing or creating cuttings. Make sure it is well established and won’t suffer from cutting it back or re-potting from dividing.
Plants can be propagated from seeds (sexual), or from cuttings, leaves or dividing (asexual). Propagating from stem cuttings is the easiest method, but depending on the plant you may want to try to propagate the leaves or division. Of course, you may want to try growing from seeds if you are a hardcore Plantcestry fan with a green thumb!
Yes – you can share any plant you have received from someone else with your free membership! If you want to start your own plant line and track where it goes, you can upgrade your membership to create a new line. See Create a Plant Line FAQ’s below.
Create a Plant Line
Anyone can share their own plant line through Plantcestry by creating a membership. Once you create your membership, you can add your Original Plant and begin tracking your plant’s journey.