Advice on taking cuttings and not killing them, please

[Justmuddlingalong]

Novice gardener here. I've lots of still blooming geraniums, fuschias, begonias and other unknown plants. Could I take cuttings now and overwinter them in one of those wee plastic mini greenhouse thingies? I'm on the east coast of Scotland and could do with some advice from those who know what they're doing. Many thanks.

I have had many many sad cutting failures, but recently have had some successes. It depends on the plant, but generally I have found that a very loose potting mix of compost/grit in a terracotta pot, and put the cuttings around the edge - right up against the terracotta edge. I don't know why this works but it seems to. I have three successful wall flower cuttings and a couple of honeysuckles recently from this method.
It's very key to keep them moist, and I have found that placing the pot in a shallow tray and watering the tray rather than the soil surface helps to maintain even moisture. I also put a good layer of just grit at the top of the pot because I think that stops the stem from rotting. New roots will come out from the nodes where leaves grow - so cut just under a set of leaves, strip all but one set of leaves off the cutting leaving a good length of stem and plunge the whole stem right up to the remaining leaves into the pot.

Geraniums/pelargoniums will grow from just cutting any old how and sticking into water until roots appear - they are pretty foolproof.

Carol (I think) from gardeners world is the cuttings queen - look for a YouTube vid of her doing some and she'll set you right

Brilliant. Thanks for your help. I'll attempt to follow your advice.

I agree that cuttings of geraniums are very easy and satisfying! Just put them in some seed cutting compost in a pot, I usu stick on a window sill for a bit, but they’re so tough! Maybe cover in winter depending on where you are?

Fuchsias and pelargoniums - I take a 3inch cutting, remove all the leaves except a bit of the top ones - I aim to leave about a postage stamp in area. Cut the base of the cutting straight across just below a leaf node. Then put half a dozen cuttings around the edge of the pot in gritty compost, with 2inches or more in the soil and half to an inch sticking out. Water the soil, then put the whole pot into a plastic bag and tie the top shut. Apart from checking every month or so, watering if necessary (it usually isn't), and pulling out any cutting that has rotted off, I do no more until there are roots coming out of the bottom of the pot. At that stage, the cuttings can be gently separated and potted up.

Geranium will often root if you just stick them into the soil.

I believe Begonias are best propagated by leaf cuttings. I've never done it so you would have to google.

@MereDintofPandiculation

Fuchsias and pelargoniums - I take a 3inch cutting, remove all the leaves except a bit of the top ones - I aim to leave about a postage stamp in area. Cut the base of the cutting straight across just below a leaf node. Then put half a dozen cuttings around the edge of the pot in gritty compost, with 2inches or more in the soil and half to an inch sticking out. Water the soil, then put the whole pot into a plastic bag and tie the top shut. Apart from checking every month or so, watering if necessary (it usually isn't), and pulling out any cutting that has rotted off, I do no more until there are roots coming out of the bottom of the pot. At that stage, the cuttings can be gently separated and potted up.

Geranium will often root if you just stick them into the soil.

I believe Begonias are best propagated by leaf cuttings. I've never done it so you would have to google.

Where do you keep them, inside or out?

Inside on a windowsill

My cuttings which have worked have been outside in the cold frame but this has been over the summertime.

Where do you keep them, inside or out? Greenhouse. But if I didn't have a greenhouse I'd probably keep them on a windowsill somewhere, so I didn't forget about them. E or N facing so not too hot.

My mother used to do her cuttings in a trench in the vegetable garden. When she became disabled and could no longer garden, she ended up with a mixed hedge across her veg bed, about 8 ft high, of all sorts of exotics that she'd taken cuttings of and never managed to separate and plant in their final positions.

Yes to geranium - especially pelargonium but also the perennial kind for cuttings - I had success as a total amateur after watching carol klein on gardeners world. Also catmint worked. And really you don’t have much to lose by trying with anything.

@MereDintofPandiculation your mums hedge sounds awesome!

@BewareTheBeardedDragon Why the pictorial posts?

@MereDintofPandiculation oh god - dd had my phone earlier, I had no idea
She also sent several text messages. She is 6...

that's a relief! I was trying to work out what subtle message you were trying to convey

😆😂

P.s that was me

@MereDintofPandiculation

that's a relief! I was trying to work out what subtle message you were trying to convey

'Subtle'

Nope!

I thought it was meant to be a depiction of the random exotic hedge!

Ah crap, if I'd thought of that I could have brazzened it out.

I'm sure I've spelt brazened wrong there.

Well, you got it right 50% of the time

Brazzened sounds a bit risqué...

So, reluctantly, back to the theme of the thread...
This summer I took a lot of cuttings of a houseplant that i like and saw how those cuttings in square pots did so much better and grew really quickly.
Side of pot good; corner better!

My father always had great success with cuttings. He had a mysterious plastic pot that the label had long rubbed off, which contained a rooting compound. All aIl can remember about it was that it was slightly pink. You dipped the cutting into the pot to coat it with rooting compound, then planted it.
He too left a legacy line of forsythia.

@Ariela I used to use rooting compound until I read that it goes off really quickly and you need to buy new each year. So I stopped using it, and it didn't make any difference.

Forsythia roots really easily - I swear that I once got roots on some that I'd put into the ground upside down.