Allotments 4 All

A week old;

Very impressive Gardener :D  My favourite flower.  How have you managed to get so many cuttings so early in the year - my fuchsias in my greenhouse are not advanced enough for cuttings yet.

Looking good, G. I'd be interested in your compo mix, thinking of doing some myself this time round.

Pat.......I set them going on the 2nd February, and I take the cuttings when they are about 25mm (1") long.

The compost mix is quite simple really;

50% (by volume) riddled Multi purpose compost.

50% (by volume) Silver sand.

After I have placed the compost in the tray I spread a layer of silver sand on top of it, about 6mm (1/4") thick.

I do not water the tray before setting the cuttings.

What I find happens by this method is; the dry silver sand trickles down into the hole formed by the cutting. I think they breathe better this way and they don't succumb so readily to 'damping off'

Then I water them in row by row.

To assist with my watering I fit a nozzle ( from a mastic tube or similar) to my one litre watering can. I find this gives me better control of where the water is going.

I then set the tray on some bottom heat to give a soil temperature of around 18°C (65°F)

And thats all there is to it!

Great info Gardener - thanks.  

Okay, so now you have a tray of lovely little fuchsias, what next?  Are they going in your garden?  Only ask cos there are so many, and we have already seen pics of your full garden.  Or, are these bedding ones that are binned at the end of the season?

Good info there, G. Thanks. I'll give it a go. All I need now is a few shush trips to a garden centre.

I am amazed you take them so small Gardener  :o

Like pat my stock plants are not yet ready to take cuttings from - even the size you do.  Between you and me i am getting a little frustrated, since I need some young vigorous plants for this years display and did not buy in new because I was convinced i could grow my own.

When the stock plants have grown enough may well try your method Gardener. Thanks  :)

In answer your question EJ

Unless I have a reason to keep the stock/parent plant, these go somewhere in the garden, e.g. baskets / planters / containers etc.

Lately I have not been lifting these at the end of the season, I am testing them for hardiness.

With due respect to the specialists I have found the odd one that they say would not (normally) be winter hardy in my area sometimes survives, and vice versa.

I then keep two or three of each variety as pot plants, I rarely take them above 100mm(4") pot size.

The rest go to family, friends & charity.

Does that answer your question?

It does Gardener.  I love Fuchsias and took a few cuttings from my Grandads garden last year, and I looked today, and they are all sprouting.  These have been in the garden since weeny babies and have stood up to frost and snow.  Going down again at easter but I don't suppose his plants will be ready for taking more cuttings...oh well, just have to go again in the summer  ;D

( I bet that EJ goes round garden centres with her sewing scissors.)

Six years ago I had 5 basket fuchsias left over and planted them in odd spots among the roses, where they have now made small plantations 18 inches or so across.  I cut them down to the ground evey year - mainly because it would be too much bother to try and prune the shoots individually -when I prune the roses, and they simply get bigger every year.  One of them - Princess of Denmark - is particularly hardy and vigorous, and will make fine standards up to 6 ft, although these do, of course, need winter protection.

Progress report as at today 8th April;

Rooted cutting;




A few potted up;

Are you going to train that one as a standard Gardener as I find that the three leaved cuttings make good standards, (or is it a trailer :-\)

Hadn't given it any thought Patricia.

I didn't even look to see what variety it was when taking its picture.

I rarely bother with standards. I find them a bit of a hassle keeping them through the winter, simply because of the space they take up. I generally need that space for over wintering other things.

So I tend to grow them as 'bush' varieties.