Three Ways To Propogate A ZZ Plant

If you are at all familiar with houseplant trends then you may know that one of the most popular houseplants is the plant affectionately referred to as ZZ. Because its name Zamioculcas zamiifolia is neither pronouncable nor memorable, and the plant is really too new on the houseplant scene to have earned itself a name like peace lily, wandering jew, mother in law’s tongue, lucky bamboo, etc. so ZZ it is, and truthfully, ZZ is just fine for this wonderful and easy to care for plant, so lets just leave it at that!

So I am writing this article about the three ways to propogate a ZZ plant, because in repotting some of mine, surprise surprise, I also ended up doing some propogating, which means more ZZ plants in my little jungle, can’t wait! While the ZZ plant is known to tolerate low light situations, my ZZ plant in a somewhat low light location started to fail, and I just couldn’t believe that I, the houseplant enthusiast with a mini jungle in my living room was having trouble with one of the easiest plants to grow, or rather hardest plants to kill! After loosing most of its stalks, my ZZ plant was clearly suffering, so my last ditch effort, was to move it to a bright location, and guess what, within a few days the plant already had new sprouts, I almost couldn’t believe my eyes. In my delight I decided to combine my very small ZZ plant, which has been doing fine, with this larger one, whose pot was looking quite empty, and while repotting I discovered a huge rhizome clump underneath the clump that was supporting the stalks of the plant, whaddaya know? That may have been why the plant wasn’t doing well, or maybe because it wasn’t doing well it cloned itself? We will never quite know, I’m just happy to have hopefully resolved the mystery of the failing ZZ plant, and now the next time I treat myself to a plant, ZZ it will be! Okay, lets get propogating!

Before we talk about how to propogate a ZZ plant, some folks might be wondering why we’d want to do such a thing? Well first of all, in my neck of the woods plants are relatively expensive, so by propogating a plant, I quite simply increase the number of plants with little investment. And of course gifting plants that you’ve propogated is a great feeling, and very often folks who are also plant lovers will gift you something back! It also turns out that the ZZ plant is an air purifier and in the famous NASA study, researchers found that it is specifically adept at removing copious amounts of toxins such as xylene, toluene, and benzene from the air. So folks, this means that the more ZZ plants the better, so lets learn how to propogate!

But first just a tiny bit of info regarding the origins of this fabulous plant. Zamioculcas zamiifolia originates in drought-prone Africa (where it thrives outdoors) not unlike the houseplant favorite, sanseveria (snake plant, mother in law’s tongue). As it turns out just a couple of decades ago, Dutch nurseries located in South Africa saw the plant’s amazingly simple propagating potential and in 1996 started distributing it around the world. Since then, ZZ plants have become familiar and widely grown worldwide.

Three Ways To Propogate A ZZ Plant

1. Propogate With Rhizome Division

The reason ZZ Plants don’t need watered very frequently is because they retain water in their rhizomes, which look like little bulbous potatoes or flowers bulbs of sorts under the dirt. Often, with the ZZ plant one is able to see rhizomes peeking up out of the soil at the base of the plant. While some rhizomes are thin and narrow run horizontally under the dirt, the ZZ plant rhizome is quite round. Each rhizome has one or more stalks growing from it, and a ZZ plant with more than two or three stalks, certainly has several rhizomes.

To propogate via rhizome division one removes the entire plant from the pot. You will see large roots and at the base of the stems you will see potato like rhizomes.
Gently separate the roots, and then gently separate one rhizome from the rest, and so on. Be gentle, but don’t worry if you end up tearing some roots or damaging a stalk, the plant is very hardy and once you re-pot it all we be well!

Below you can see a photo of the rhizome clump I found in my ZZ plant pot, yet it wasn’t side by side with the other rhizomes as it should be, it was underneath. I have now planted this clump in its own pot, with roots down and the section where I saw some small sprouts, up. And hopefully the rhizomes will make us happy by growing some stems.

2. Propogate With Stem Cuttings

A stem cutting of a ZZ Plant is so simple and a great project to do with kids. It takes a month to two months generally to see roots.

Cut off a stalk at the base of your plant, making a straight cut with a clean knife.
Place the cut stem in water, in a clear jar or vase, and change out the water every 3-4 weeks. Make sure there is no mold growing in the water and be patient!
Keep the cutting near a window where it can receive bright, indirect light. Your ZZ cutting will be encouraged to grow by exposure to bright light.
When your cutting has grown a tiny rhizome at its base, and at least one inch of new roots, it’s time to pot in soil!

3. Propogate With Leaf Cuttings

Leaf cuttings will take longer to develop a rhizome and roots, than a stem cutting, but you can still propagate your ZZ Plant with a leaf cutting, why not?

Cut off a leaf as close to the stalk as possible, taking a little bit of the stem with the leaf.
Place the leaf’s stem about 1 cm deep into potting mix,
Take multiple leaf cuttings, in order to fill up your pot, and place in a bright spot with indirect sun.
Water the pot of leaves and allow soil to become moist. Water again when the soil is dry, roughly every two weeks.

Okay, now you know the 3 ways to propogate a ZZ plant, and so make sure to get yourself one in order to give this a try. Owning plants that you have grown yourself through propogation of other plants is truly enjoyable, and in the case of the ZZ it means the air in your home will be purer, though you do need quite a few, but the more the merrier I’d say!