# General > Gardening >  Fuschia propagation. Help!

## porshiepoo

I need some advice for propagating Fuschia. I've tried every which way but haven't managed to get one to take and I've tried this for about 3 years now! It's supposedly one of the easiest plants to propagate - yeah right!

So what advice do any of you have? I've tried liquid hormone rooting, powdered hormone, no hormone, in a propagator, in just the greenhouse, leaving leaves on, taking em off, every size ranging from 2 inch to 6 inch.

Does anyone have a sure fire, foolproof way of doing it?

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## Tilter

Porshiepoo,
A few weeks ago, I accidently broke off a stem while transplanting a fuschia to a hanging basket.  Rather than chucking it on the compost, I stuck it in a pot just as it broke off, with some compost (I didn't have any rooting powder) and left it in the greenhouse.  Amazingly, it is growing - it never even died back.

So - sorry for the lack of advice.  Maybe it was beginner's luck.

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## trinkie

It is easy - but perhaps that depends on which type of Fuschia you've got.

The hardy one, which does not go in a basket,  will  'take'  very easily.   The more tender ones are a bit trickier,  but I have kept plants going for years.

Mix some sand in good compost and stick in a heel,  dont water too often.  Good luck.


Btw  - do you take cuttings of your geraniums?   they are very easy,  I have a double one which I had given me twenty years ago - and I take cuttings every year !

Have fun.
Trinkie

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## porshiepoo

> It is easy - but perhaps that depends on which type of Fuschia you've got.
> 
> The hardy one, which does not go in a basket,  will  'take'  very easily.   The more tender ones are a bit trickier,  but I have kept plants going for years.
> 
> Mix some sand in good compost and stick in a heel,  dont water too often.  Good luck.
> 
> 
> Btw  - do you take cuttings of your geraniums?   they are very easy,  I have a double one which I had given me twenty years ago - and I take cuttings every year !
> 
> ...


I have many Fuschia ranging from 1 hardy one to trailing ones to the humongous flowered ones.
The only one i haven't attempted to propagate is the hardy one - not sure why really!
I've tried adding sand to the compost, grit to the compost even nothing to the compost. Nowt works!

I'll give it one last crack and then I'm giving up and buying them as plug plants.

The geraniums I have are the Cranesbill type - not sure if you mean the other type, which i absolutely hate. They smell!  :: 
I have about 5 different type of Cranesbill and I just divide them whenever. It really doesn't even seem to matter what time of year I do it - they thrive.

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## canuck

> Mix some sand in good compost and stick in a heel,  dont water too often.  Good luck.
> 
> 
> Btw  - do you take cuttings of your geraniums?   they are very easy,  I have a double one which I had given me twenty years ago - and I take cuttings every year !
> 
> Have fun.
> Trinkie


Ah, geranium cuttings I can do!   

Back to the fuschia, what is a 'heel'?




> I have many Fuschia ranging from 1 hardy one to trailing ones to the humongous flowered ones.
> The only one i haven't attempted to propagate is the hardy one - not sure why really!
> I've tried adding sand to the compost, grit to the compost even nothing to the compost. Nowt works!
> 
> I'll give it one last crack and then I'm giving up and buying them as plug plants.


If you get this to work and end up with more plants than you really want, can I have one?

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## gardeninginagale

There are several ways of propagating fuchsias, and none of them need rooting powder. The time of year is critical. Hardy, outdoor fuchsias propagate readily from hardwood cuttings. Take these from November to March. Cut a length of last year's ripened wood, cut immediately below a node (leaf joint), and about a foot up, cut again immedialely above a node. Just shove these in the ground and leave them for a year. If you want to improve your chances, make a slit trench by pushing in a spade and rocking it back and forth. Add some sharp sand and/or garden compost, then insert the cuttings. Make sure you insert them to two thirds of their length. The more nodes below ground, the more chance of rooting.

Both hardy and indoor fuchsias root easily from softwood cuttings, and the time to take these is from now until late August. Cut a new shoot below a node. Length is immaterial, but make sure it contains four or five nodes. Don't remove the tip. Insert the cuttings in a pot with a 50/50 mix of bought (peat-free) compost and sharp sand. Forget anything you may have heard about covering them with a plastic bag - they'll rot. Just leave them on a windowsill or in a greenhouse, keep them watered, and that's it.

The cheater's way of propagating fuchsias, whether hardy or indoor, is to prepare cuttings in either of the above ways. Then just put them in a glass of water, on a light windowsill but out of direct sunlight. In a couple of weeks they will produce "water-roots" - lots of long, white and very delicate roots. These are very brittle, but handle them carefully, and pot them up in good compost. That's how I usually do it - the easy way!

Hardy fuchsias also do it by themselves. Look closely in the vicinity of a hardy fuchsia in late spring, and I bet you'll find seedlings!

Hope this helps, and sorry to be so long-winded. Propagation is particular fascination of mine.

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## Kenn

My tip too gardinginagale although I take a clear glass bowl, cover the top tightly with cling film and then poke the cuttings through small holes, place on a sunny window sill and wait for nature to take it's course.works every time.

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## gardeninginagale

> My tip too gardinginagale although I take a clear glass bowl, cover the top tightly with cling film and then poke the cuttings through small holes, place on a sunny window sill and wait for nature to take it's course.works every time.


 
Never tried the clingfilm, LIZZ. But I can see why it would be useful. However, I would still recommend a windowsill out of direct sun.

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## Scunner

I have used perlite for propagating fuchsias and like Lizz, I use clingfilm.  I cover seed trays with clingfilm, then its easy to see the seedling come through

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## Tilter

> Btw  - do you take cuttings of your geraniums?   they are very easy,  I have a double one which I had given me twenty years ago - and I take cuttings every year !
> Trinkie


Trinkie, 
that's interesting, though I'm sorry to go off the thread re fuschias.  But, 2 years ago I bought 40 trailing geranium plant plugs from Suttons for my window boxes.  They did brilliant and in the autumn I repotted them in fresh compost, cut them back, and overwintered them in the greenhouse.  Next year I'd lost maybe only 4, stuck 36 back in window boxes and they did brilliantly again over the summer.  Repotted, cut back and overwintered last year in greenhouse just the same.  Only, only 4 survived.

I wonder if plant plugs are somehow hybridized where they only last one or two years at most (so seed companies can keep selling plants)?  Or should I just have tried to propagate them?  Geraniums are tender perennials so I think they should have survived.  I was very disappointed this year.  What do you think?

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## poppett

I just used to snip off some new shoots when they got a bit straggly, put them in a jam jar with water on the windowsill, then pot them on when they were showing a good quantity of roots.

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## porshiepoo

Right I've given it one last shot! 2 days ago I propagated from 2 of my Fuschia plants, shoved em in compost (with rooting compound - couldn't resist) watered em slightly and left em on the greenhouse windowsill but away from direct sun. So far so good, no wilting as yet and seeing as normally they'd be dead or near as by now, I'm taking this as a good sign.  :Smile:

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## gardeninginagale

> Next year I'd lost maybe only 4, stuck 36 back in window boxes and they did brilliantly again over the summer. Repotted, cut back and overwintered last year in greenhouse just the same. Only, only 4 survived.
> 
> I wonder if plant plugs are somehow hybridized where they only last one or two years at most (so seed companies can keep selling plants)?


You're doing the seed companies a dis-service there. I don't think they even have the technology to make a plant last only two years, even if they wanted to!

I presume the greenhouse is unheated. Pelargoniums, especially the ivy-leaved ones which are less hardy, survive in an unheated greenhouse in this part of the world, in my experience, at best two winters out of three. It is not one frosty night which will kill them, but a few days of continuous low temperature.

I hedge my bets, by keeping a few indoors on the windowsill. They are easy to propagate from cuttings, if the ones in the polytunnel succumb.

But one point which may be worth noting - they are, as you rightly say, perennials, so they will die back in the cold, and regenerate from the base in spring. The biggest danger with plants in pots is the roots getting frost-damaged. Wrap the pots in bubble-wrap or polystyrene to insulate the roots. If your greenhouse has soil beds, dig the pots in. Soil is a great insulator. Protect the pots, and therefore the roots, any way you can, and you increase the chances of successful overwintering.

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