Gardening and Horticulture - I Need Your help With These Gardening Questions. If not you do you know who?

I am moving out of my residence and I want to take the some of the great plants and trees with me.

I have taken six oranges (not the fruit trees, but the fruits with their skins) and placed them on top of soil in their pots, hoping they will reproduce an orange tree. Will it work?

Can a passion vine's leaf be cut, place in a pot and be expected to reproduce another passion vine? If so, what would I need to create roots? I have tried the passion vine's fruit (that contained seeds) before, placing the seeds both on top of the dirt and inside the dirt, why did it not work?

Can a Mexican fire vine be graphed by cutting a leaf or a branch, placed in a pot and be expected to reproduce another Mexican fire vine? If so, what would I need to create roots?

Can a "Powder Puff" be graphed by cutting a leaf or a branch, placed in a pot and be expected to reproduce another "Powder Puff"? I do not know the tree's name. If so, what would I need to create roots?

Can a Powder Puff be graphed by cutting a leaf or a branch, placed in a pot and be expected to reproduce another Powder Puff? If so, what would I need to create roots?

Can an Aloe be graphed by cutting a branch, placed in a pot and be expected to reproduce another Aloe? If so, what would I need to create roots?

Can a Orchids be graphed by cutting a branch, placed in a pot and be expected to reproduce another Orchids? If so, what would I need to create roots?

Can a Swish Chard be graphed by cutting a leaf or a branch, placed in a pot and be expected to reproduce another Swiss Chard? If so, what would I need to create roots?

Can a Snap Dragons be graphed by cutting a leaf or a branch, placed in a pot and be expected to reproduce another Snap Dragons? If so, what would I need to create roots?

Snap Dragons are an annual. You can buy a packet of seeds for less than $2. Annuals only last a season or so. Then they "tire", ie) die of old age. The plants produce seeds which grow in their place. I've got some that come back every year.

The Swiss Chard and Powder Puff can easily grom from seed. I don't know about the others.

Passion flowers can be propagated through cuttings. Just take a piece of the vine, and pot it up. Depending on your climate, you may want to put a plastic bag around it to keep it moist, or mist it a few times per day. Keep the soil very moist until you have roots. Rooting hormone (available at garden centers) may help. Make the cuttings small. cut off a length of a few leaves. Strip off the lower leaves and put that part in the pot. Don't let the top part stick out by more than 3 leaves or so, or it will need too much water while it is trying to grow roots.

I have started passion flowers from collected seed, but the seed must be stratified (given a cold period). Remove the seeds from the fruit. Pot up some seeds, wrap up the pot in plastic (watch out for mold) and then place the pot in the back of the refrigerator for 2 months or so. Remove and keep moist; the seeds should sprout. This is a very easy process.

Thanks you. I had tried many times to get the seeds to grow without a cool period and it never worked. I live in South Fl. But I thought that might be the process to graphing passion vines because I have do that to pionesttias. I just wanted to make sure.
I have also heard that one should cut a slice into a leaf, instead of a branch as you say.

Aloe often form new plantlets at the base, break them off and if you are lucky a small piece of root will come with them, plant in well drained soil (sand/compost) mix. You can also break off a large leaf but let the bottom of it dry out for a few days to form a skin over the bottom, then push it a couple of inches into the same sand/compost mix. good luck.

Try using your refridgerator for the cool period.

BTW - I'm jealous! Its in the 30's here this week, while you're basking in the 80's.

Yearly the summers high 80s to low 90s, and lately without a drop of rain all most every day. And lots of humanity, when it rains. Heat can be unbearable. A lot people do not understand the English language or/and drive very slowly. Bad schools. Low income levels, in everything except tourism. Cannot grow the plants we want. I say all this to keep those North people away, South Fl. is all ready way too crowded and continuely growing.

I cannot stand when the winter gets around 70s. Your right a lot better then any other location. What all ways gets my attention no matter the season is the shapes of those hispanic and carbean women. Plus I am a football coach. Do not worry I am not crazy enough to want to leave South Fl., let alone Fl.

After reading what you replied, I took all the leaves off of all my passion vine cuttings, used Shult's Root Took, place them in area that is shaded all day (we are in a drought) and put plastic and glass containers over them. Do you think I made a mistake by taking off all the leaves?

Hmmmm. Not the best idea, there. Generally, you want a few leaves so that the plant can photosynthesize. If a plant has really big leaves, then you cut them shorter so it doesn't dry out so much, but you do leave a portion on.

That said, you could just leave the stems in place and see what happens. Or, you could replace some of them with cuttings with leaves. (be sure you remove the leaves from the part that goes underground).

The main part will be to keep the stems from drying out. Ideally this is done in a greenhouse, with an automatic device that mists the cuttings. Since most of us don't own one of those, we use the plastic covers. Just watch out for mold, because the air doesn't move in there.

By the way - this process is called "taking cuttings". The process of "grafting" that you refer to means taking a bit of a woody branch and attaching it to a different plant, getting the cut areas to grow together. This if often done with fruit trees or rose bushes when the variety with the desired flowers/fruits doesn't have a strong root system. A related plant with a strong root system is used, and the desired plant is attached to it. If/when the desired plant grows together with the rooted plant, the stem of the host plant is cut off, leaving only the desired stem. Check out rose bushes at the store - you can easily see a large scar where this process took place.

Thanks, man I swear I passed science class in school, LOL. I did over all my cuttings. The word I was looking for was propagate. Thanks man.