How do I take cuttings off my busy lizzie.
Frances Willey
Posts: 16
Cooler weather has arrived and my busy lizzy is looking overgrown and stopped flowerung. How do I get new plants from it for next year?
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Frances Willey
Posts: 16
Frances Willey
Posts: 16
Posts
Busy lizzies root easily in a glass of water. Just cut off a shoot, remove lower leaves (which would rot in water) and leave in a glass of water until roots appear. When there are plenty of roots, pot it up. Keep it frost free. They won't survive outside in winter. Feed with a high potash fertiliser to get lots of flowers next year.
If anyone has a Brugmansia,( formerly called datura)you can do it with those as well. I take shoots about a foot long and pencil thick, and leave in a large coffee jar of water in the kitchen windowsill all winter. In spring there will be roots , and I pot them into 6 inch pots of compost. The original plant has to be cut down for the winter anyway. This is insurance against losing the original plant in the greenhouse for the winter.
Impatiens hawkerii (or New Guinea busy lizzie) is a tender, short-lived perennial.
You can try renewed flowering by cutting back all spent branches, working the
soil a bit, and putting it in a warmer place (they are not demanding on sunlight).
I tried that but the top leaves died after several days. Will roots still grow when this happens? How long does it take for roots to appear? Think I'm expecting it to happen too quickly. Ta for your response rusflurum and fidgetbones.
Don`t bother! They can be rooted in water as mentioned above but the great difficulty is keeping the rooted cuttings alive until next April or so. They are so cheap to buy (£1.50 from Wyvale this year) they are not worth the trouble.
Beginning to agree with you bigolob!!
Frances, just enjoy the plant and its flowers for as long as they live and next year, buy another!
Do they all do as well? Never had a plant bloom for so long.
rooting in water does the trick. our busy lissy that just died lasted for twenty years. so good luck with the next
I buy my plants early in year,before flowering.Out of 24 plants I can getup to 100 new plants.They flower a few weeks later than normal but the result is worth it.I use plastic glasses and put tinfoil over the top with four small holes pierced on top.insert one cutting in each hole.This keeps cutting secure and prevents leaves from rotting in water .90% success rate every year I never bother trying to overwinter.