I am not as innocent a person as you might think. I steal plants. Let me explain. When I'm shopping for plants, there are always leaves, stems and branches of plants that have been damaged by shopper traffic and have ended up on the floor, waiting for the night's cleaning crew to sweep it away for the trash. The NEXT time you see things like these on the ground, PICK THEM UP and bring them home, recut the stem so you see wet green instead of dried out brown at the tip and either stick it into water, or dip it into rooting hormone and into a pot of rooting soil. If you fail, well then at least you tried. But if you succeed, then you've got a new plant for free!
African violets can root very easily in water. Just make sure the cutting is of a healthy leaf so it can absorb as much light as possible. The above african violet you see here, I got from a discarded stem cutting last year at Lowes. Now it's a flowering healthy plant bursting with vigor and waiting to be propagated again. Yay me!
This bud vase is rooting a leaf from a plant called Purple Passion. I got this sad little leaf from the floor of a busy Publix. I am thinking that this plant is a cousin of the african violet because it has the same kind of fuzz as the other and though it does not flower, its leaves are the MOST beautiful violet and green mixture I've yet to see. They also root in water the same way. You can see some of this color and the roots beginning to grow in the water. They grow very quickly! In a week or two, I'll stick this one in a little pot and keep it on the windowsill. 
Today's moral: one mans trash is another man's treasure.
Any questions?
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