Can I root even the woody stuff? Or, should I chop
up the more flexible shoots and root these (with
Rootone)? How long does it take to root? Does
bottom heating help?

thanks for all advice here.

As it's a triphylla type don't cut quite so hard back as you would other fuchsias. Leave approx. 8 ins. of the old stems, that is from soil level. You can also remove some of the old soil and no more than a third of the roots and re-pot into new soil. Do not feed for at least a month, or until you see new signs of growth.

Yes you can use the old 'cut-off' stems for cutting material, that is if the wood is semi-ripe or hard and is still alive ie whity-green inside the stem. Now be careful, because they must be 'the-right-way-up' for planting. So for instance when removing from the mother plant, cut straight across the bottom and at a slant at the top, this will help you to remember which way up they go for planting. If you cut stems of 6 inches long, then bury half when planting into a pot.

Yes bottom heat helps, you will find that they root quicker, about 60f/15c is ok. Takes about a month, but this does vary.

Wishing you success - Kath:)

Not much more to add to what Kath has already said.

When I take my cuttings I root these as tip cuttings, these root quicker than any other type of cutting. The semi-ripe or hardwood cutting will give you some results but don’t hold out too much hope for a 100% take that you should expect from tip cuttings.

Depending on how long the hardwood material you have is and the temperature you are experiencing at the time another method is to take a piece of material 6 to 8 inches in length with no leaves (right way up as Kath describes) and place these around the edge of a terracotta pot filled with any general purpose compost(soil), water slightly and place in a place that is neither too cold or too warm and leave there for a week or so (just check that they haven’t dried out). There will be no need to cover these, after a week place in a nice warm airy position away from direct sunlight and lightly spray every other day with tepid water. Within 6 to 8 weeks these should be rooted and you will be able to see the buds beginning to swell. When rooted pot them individually or leave in one pot for a larger specimen.

When you need a lot of cuttings from a particular plant it is even possible to split the stem lengthways through a bud and root both halves, fuchsias are so accommodating.

As Kath says when cutting back your Triphylla you need to leave a bit more stem and a few more buds on than for normal varieties.

I was at Mike Oxtoby’s nursery on Wednesday and the large plant that he has of ‘Thalia’ is in fact 30 years old and at the moment is just coming back into leaf, it is huge now, I would imaging over four foot high and it must be 6 or 7 foot in circumference.

And guess who bought some more varieties , as if I need them…..

Good growing

Tight....