Taking fuchsia cuttings in the fall

Water, and arrange a humidity tent of clear plastic over the pot to keep the cutting bathed in moist air. Hold the plastic above the cutting with a hoop of wire or sticks stuck into the soil. Root the cuttings in a warm place in good light but out of direct sun.

Wintering Tender Fuchsias

First, trim and clean the plants. Cut back long branches enough for convenient handling and storage. Strip off any remaining leaves and flowers, and snip off dead and spindly shoots. Clear debris away from the top of the soil.

The containers can then be stored in a cool but frost-free place for the winter. This location might be an unheated basement room or attic, a garage, or a shed. I store my trimmed and cleaned fuchsias on the floor of a little greenhouse that is kept just slightly above freezing during the winter.

Some home gardeners set the trimmed and cleaned plants in large cardboard boxes and pile damp sawdust around them. This holds the plants and roots in an atmosphere of helpful humidity during their period of cool storage.

Fuchsias stored indoors without a humidity-holding cover need to be checked often for dryness. Give the plants just enough water to keep the roots from drying out.

A method for saving fuchsias that many home gardeners find to be 100 per cent successful is to bury them 10 to 12 inches deep in a trench or pit dug in a sheltered area of the garden that never stays wet in winter. Unpot the plants for this wintering method, and lay them on their sides on a bed of chopped dry leaves or sawdust. Cover with more leaves or sawdust, then soil. Mark the spot clearly.

Coaxing fuchsia plants into spring growth