Geranium & Fuchsia cuttings from our son

19 comments

Today I planted some Geranium cutting I got from our son yesterday. His wife bought some small plants from a cut price supermarket in town in the spring. I liked them very much & they seemed to be quite vigorous plants so I asked him for some cuttings. They have 4 plants & I took 2 cuttings from each of them but one I couldn’t find a 2nd branch, without flowerbuds, which I could have taken.

Geraniums:

We went out into the garden & I showed him how to take cuttings. I trimmed them, roughly, while still with our son in his garden so that I could show him how to take cuttings. As this is his 1st year ever with a garden of his own he knows very little about gardening! He is quickly becoming a “chip of the old block”! :-)) He is showing quite an interest in growing plants & attending to those they have found growing in their garden.

They are now just discovering what’s in the garden as they moved in during November 2015 so this, being their first year, is turning into quite an adventure for them! They have had some help from their 3 year old daughter who loves going round the garden pulling up the weeds – I don’t know if she has pulled out cultivated plants thinking they were weeds as yet.

I also took 4 cutting from a lovely Fuchsia they have growing in a big pot outside their French windows.

Fuchsia in August:

Fuchsia in September:

This is a very nice looking Fuchsia & I put the cutting, together with the Geranium cutting, in an electrically heated propagator, while the Geranium cutting don’t really need the heat I thought it might speed up the rooting of the Fuchsia cuttings.

This is his first year ever with a garden so he has a lot to learn! He asks me for advice from time to time & I try to explain to him some of the things he needs to do. When we go to visit him & our granddaughter we always spend a while in the garden & he asks me things about the plants he has & I explain other things too.

19 Sep, 2016
6 likes

Comments

Paulspatch

You're being busy as usual, Balcony.

19 Sep, 2016

Costas4

Nice of you Balcony. I hope they show a real and lasting interest in gardening. I did it twice myself in my daughter's garden and never do it again. I spent a lot of money, buying them plants, compost, fertilizers, slug pellets, even a watering can. Although they showed a lot of interest in the beginning, they left everything to die and never bothered to go outside in the garden to have a look. Their excuse "very busy" at work and tired when coming home.

19 Sep, 2016

Balcony

You know me, Paul, never a quite moment! :-D)

Thanks, homebird.I'm always willing to help anybody that needs it if I can! I'm pleased my son is showing interest in gardening & I'm very happy to help him in any way I can! :-))

I'm hoping the cuttings do well!

19 Sep, 2016

Balcony

Hi Costas, we must have crossed posts! It's a shame after all you did for them that they should give up on it all. I hope my son doesn't go that way! For the moment at least he seems to be enjoying it & even mentioned to his mum that they might consider taking on an allotment!

19 Sep, 2016

Ginellie

Brilliant to take all those cuttings Balcony. I have so many lovely fuchsias and geraniums but all my attempts at taking cuttings have failed in the past. Lavender seems to work fine so I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Hope your son continues to enjoy his garden.

19 Sep, 2016

Lincslass

Oh its always good to share an interest Balcony and it sounds as though your son is really keen, if he's already doing cuttings to increase his plants, I can propogate geraniums as easily as anything but I cannot ever get fuschia cuttings to take, tried many a time over the years without success ...

19 Sep, 2016

Steragram

That's great Balcony, they are lucky to have you around.

20 Sep, 2016

Dianebulley

Balcony's Grand daughter reminded me of a neighbour years ago. He bought the summer bedding plants, and spent all afternoon planting them.
Went indoors for a welcome rest and cup of tea.
Quiet outside.
Then his 4 year old son came in and said
" Daddy, I have done the weedling for you ! "
He had pulled them all up.

20 Sep, 2016

Steragram

Oh dear oh dear - and you can't be cross can you...

20 Sep, 2016

Balcony

Those tales of the little boy & the dog made me laugh! :-D)

Normally I don't have much difficulty at all getting Fuchsias cutting to root but this year I'm not having much luck at all the reason why I put them in the propagator this time! (I'd hate my son to know that they didn't root - where would my reputation go?)

Geraniums root with such ease that even the most novice of gardeners (even my son!) should be able to root them!

Sorry to hear about your problems with rooting cuttings, Lincs, I find I can root many plants from cuttings but not even I have more than 75-80% success!

BTW, it's not my son who is rooting the cuttings but me!

21 Sep, 2016