Answer:
Plants can be propagated, or multiplied, in several different ways. Most people are familiar with growing new plants from seeds, but new plants can also be created by cutting off a portion of an established plant. This “cutting” is placed in an environment that encourages it to produce new roots and/or stems, thus forming a new, independent plant.
There are several advantages to propagating plants using cuttings:
The new plant will be identical to the parent plant. For example, if the parent plant has variegated (multi-colored) foliage, the new plant grown from the cutting will have the same foliage. If the parent plant is female (as a holly or ginkgo might be), the new plant will also be female. Propagating a plant by cuttings will allow you to keep the special characteristics of that plant. Plants grown from seed will often be different from the parent plant and from each other.
Propagating a new plant via cuttings avoids the difficulties of propagating by seed. For example, by using cuttings you could propagate a young tree that has not yet flowered (and thus has not yet produced seed), a male tree, or a sterile plant such as a navel orange. Additionally, some seeds are difficult to germinate, taking two to three years for the seedling to appear.
A new plant grown from a cutting will frequently mature faster and flower sooner than a plant grown from a seed.
