Propagation
Propagation is the practice of deliberately increasing plants by the gardener. Thus it embraces seed raising, division and cuttings of stems, leaves and roots. With many woody plants and some herbaceous plants it also embraces grafting. With aquatic plants cuttings, seed raising and division in their various forms are usual, although there are sometimes special adaptations that have to be made for individual plant groups.
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 Seed raising is a common method of propagation for aquatic and bog plants.
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 Hardy waterlilies are lifted and divided every few years in order to maintain their vigour.
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Many aquatic plants, including hardy waterlilies, naturally increase in number and form expanding clumps. It is good management to separate them regularly every three or four years, otherwise they become very congested, flower sparingly and the leaves clump together and climb above the water surface. With tropical waterlilies and lotus it is a similar situation, although these have different root systems and are likely to be attended to annually.
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While it is usual to retain sufficient young vigorous portions of plants to replace the clumps that have been lifted, it is possible to remove many more for propagation purposes if desired.
Marginal aquatics are mostly increased by division. It is quite simple in most cases, except with those such as Lysichiton, where the plants root very strongly and cannot be lifted without being damaged. Such plants are mostly left undisturbed and increased from seed, although crowding side growths may on occasions be cut away to permit the plant’s proper development. A few submerged aquatics are divided too, including the Hair Grass, Eleocharis acicularis, and the various submerged and emergent Marsilea species.
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 Lysichiton are increased from seed sown immediately it ripens.
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 Hardy waterlilies can be increased by the removal of eyes from their rootstocks.
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Some forms of division are specialised and cross the line between being true divisions and cuttings. In the case of all hardy waterlilies, except Nymphaea tetragona, the plants can be increased by the removal and planting in small pots of “eyes”. These are buds that develop on the creeping rootstock of mature plants and eventually develop into part of the branching rootstock network. By removing them prematurely they grow away strongly and produce a new plant. With tropical waterlilies eyes are absent, but some species and cultivars produce young plants on the leaves and these can be detached and potted.
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Cuttings of all kinds are utilised for propagating aquatic and bog garden plants. Short stem cuttings of non-flowering shoots taken at any time during the spring and summer provide a ready means of propagation for fast-growing marginal aquatics like Veronica beccabunga and Mentha aquatica. Emerging spring shoots of clump-forming bog garden plants such as Aconitum and Mimulus are equally successful and offer an alternative propagation method for these plants. Root cuttings are employed for the candelabra primulas, while slices of stem, - each with a bud - is a technique used for increasing the Bog Arum, Calla palustris and Bog Bean, Menyanthes trifoliata.
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 Mimulus cardinalis can be readily increased from short stem cuttings.
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