Soil-rooted Fuchsia Cuttings

21 days after pinching out the new 'Hawkshead' fuchsia and placing the tips in garden soil (in a bag propagator), this is the result: new fuchsia plants. Fantastic.

These cuttings have been potted up in multi-purpose compost. As soon as they get large enough, I'll pinch out the tips again. This will give flowers in 8 weeks time with this single fuchsia (10 weeks with double).

It looks as if these cuttings are already forming flowers. These need removing to release energy for leaf and stem growth. There is not enough of it, as yet, to adequately support flowering.

Note that the roots have formed on the stem, not at the node (the place where the leaves are attached). I wonder what would happen if I allowed the internode (the space between the leaf nodes) to become longer before taking the cutting, thus allowing more space for roots to form. Would the seedling grow much quicker? Interesting.