Definition: A mother plant is a gardening term that describes a plant from which you are going to take cuttings. Plant cuttings are small pieces of a larger, or mother, plant that are cut off and rooted. These small cuttings produce new plants that will have the same traits of the mother plant. (Unlike growing plants from seed, where the resulting plant could have some traits of either parent plant.) Although the mother plant will be significantly smaller after taking cuttings, it will generally be kept and allowed to grow back in.
Examples:
I almost hate to take cuttings of this mother plant, it's so full and beautiful.
