Many woody plants and climbers have a tendency to develop roots on stems when they touch the ground. Some climbers such as ivy even develop aerial roots. You can take advantage of this habit or even stimulate it in some other woody plants – to make new plants, cutting the rooted stem from the parent and either potting it up or planting it out, if well developed enough.

Simple Layering is especially useful to increase clematis, camellia, magnolia, and rhododendron, none which root easily from cuttings. Layer shrubs in spring and climbers in early summer/ Rooting takes at least one year, sometimes several. Dig a hole next to the parent plant and bend a stem into it leaving 6in.(15cm) of the growing tip above the ground.

Peg the shoot down with a piece of bent wire., replace the soil, and put a rock on top to hold the shoot down and conserve moisture. Wounding the buried stem can speed up the rooting process. Cut a slice or twist the buried stem to until the bark is damaged.When the stem beyond the stone begins to show more vigorous growth, it has rooted anc can be severed from the parent
 
 

Compound (serpentine) layering is similar to simple layering, but several layers can result from a single stem. Bend the stem to the rooting medium as for simple layering, but alternately cover and expose sections of the stem. Each section should have at least one bud exposed and one bud covered with soil. Wound the lower side of each stem section to be covered. This method works well for plants producing vine-like growth such as heart-leaf philodendron, pothos, wisteria, clematis, and grapes
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Mound (stool) layering is useful with heavy-stemmed, closely branched shrubs and rootstocks of tree fruits. Cut the plant back to 1 inch above the soil surface in the dormant season. Dormant buds will produce new shoots in the spring. Mound soil over the new shoots as they grow  Roots will develop at the bases of the young shoots. Remove the layers in the dormant season. Mound layering works well on apple rootstocks, spirea, quince, daphne, magnolia, and cotoneaster.

Air layering can be used to propagate large, overgrown house plants such as rubber plant, croton, or dieffenbachia that have lost most of their lower leaves. Woody ornamentals such as azalea, camellia, magnolia, oleander, and holly can also be propagated by air layering.

For optimum rooting, make air layers in the spring on shoots produced during the previous season or in mid to late summer on shoots from the current season’s growth. For woody plants, stems of pencil size diameter or larger are best.

Choose an area just below a node and remove leaves and twigs on the stem 3 to 4 inches above and below this point. This is normally done on a stem about 1 foot from the tip.