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In Southern California the best time to cut back your fuchsia basket is in the middle of the winter. In other parts of the country follow your local nursery directions. In actuality here in our climate you may cut back at any time. Because most fuchsias are spring, fall bloomers winter is the ideal cut back time. You are then ready to come into bloom again sometime in the spring.
You will need a table or flat surface to work on, clippers or a sharp knife, a small amount of fresh potting mix, a larger basket or container if needed. Add in a plastic trash bag for trash and a little courage.
Take a good look at the pictures and you'll see the three
stages of cutting back a fuchsia basket.
 This plant is what we started with. This fuchsia has
been growing and blooming for months and months and is getting old and woody
looking. |
Next...Put your basket on the table and cut back all the branches about 1/2 way. You'll be cutting more so this is quick and dirty to allow you to see your plant better. Your plant should then look something like this picture. |
Be sure to put all your clippings into the trash....we don't want to leave any whitefly eggs or larvae around ! Clean out all the old leaves and debris in the basket. Now you can take a good look at your plant.
Since your fuchsia will send out new growth from the old wood you may safely cut back your plant to somewhere just outside the outer edge of your container. Fuchsias bloom on new growth, if you don't cut back at some point during the year all your growth will be on the tips of the strongest old branches and you will end up with a 3 or 4 armed monster with a few blooms and long ugly branches.
...Go ahead and clip off more of those branches almost to the edge of your container. If this seems scary remember the advice in Proverbs about sparing the rod and spoiling the child Remember that? Well, Mother Evelyn and Mother Nature have written a new one! "Spare the clippers and spoil the plant"! Write that down in your plant bible.  |
...Now you can really see the branches that are left. Begin to fine tune your pruning by cutting away all of the little thin branches. We want to leave the good strong medium and large branches. Are there branches that cross over other branches? Leave the strongest and cut off the other. |
Question? Where do I cut?
What is a node and how do you find it on an old woody
plant?
Answer:
This is a little complicated but keep
reading and I'll try to make it clear. Look at the picture below and you can
see where the new growth has started out of the old wood. That growth is coming
from an old joint or node. That is how your fuchsia will look as it starts to
grow again. Look at the bare branch to the left and you can see two little
black lines on the stem where we marked it to make it easier to see. That is a
leaf node that has not yet started to grow.
A node is the word we use for where new growth starts from an existing stem. We use this word often when we talk about plants. Later on, in the page about pinching a plant, we might use the term "pinch to the 2nd or 3rd node" That means you take away all the growth except the last 2 or 3 three nodes. Every time a plant makes a branch the spot where that branch begins is a leaf node. This growth might still be there as a branch or that growth may have fallen away completely, but there will still be that sort of a bump on the stem where the old branch was. That is called a "node".
Your new growth is going to come from that place. Make your cut just above it. Not right on it because you often have some of the stem die back a little bit below the cut. Any time you prune a plant you make the cut above a leaf node. Sometimes you can see which way the node points. You can then help your new growth come out the correct direction. This is not too important on a fuchsia basket plant so don't spend a lot of time worrying about it. Actually, don't worry about where you cut, since your fuchsia will survive even if you don't cut exactly right.
You will have very few if any leaves left when you finish. Be sure you have cleaned away any old leaves or debris in the pot. Take off about half an inch of the soil in the pot and fill in with some new fresh potting mix.
Hang your basket up, water if it needs it. Don't forget that at this time it won't need very much water.
The new growth should begin to grow in a few weeks . You should see little green sprouts starting to come out of the old wood. When your plant has good growth coming out it is time to start to feed and pinch.
Frequently asked question.
I forgot to cut back my fuchsia in the winter. Now it is spring and it is
blooming and growing...shall I cut it back now or wait or what?
Answer. Take a good look at your fuchsia basket. If it is full and good looking
then go ahead and leave it. You can trim it back later when it is going through
a seed pod cycle. If your fuchsia has lots of woody growth and looks pretty bad
then go ahead and cut it back and you will have to wait several months for a
good plant with bloom.
[the picture of cutting back fuchsias at the top are new pictures that I
just took in mid March. I looked up an old stock plant and used that as a
guinea pig. In a few weeks I'll show you a picture of the new growth that we
hope to have.
A few pictures of how to pinch. Remember the part about fuchsias blooming on
ends of new branches? In this early spring season you are going to try to get
as many short compact branches as possible. As soon as your plant is growing
well make your first "pinch". To make a pinch take a pair of clippers
or better yet use your fingernails and just pinch off that end tip. You want to
have those little branches no longer than about 2 to 3 inches.
We often tell you to leave 2-3 leaf nodes behind the pinch. If you forget to
pinch and the branch gets longer then you will still leave just the 2-3 inches.
You just wasted all that growth. If you have a long stretched branch with 7 or
8 leaf nodes then you will have wasted 5 or 6 nodes of growth after you have
pinched.
Look at the pictures below. I used 4 inch plants to easily show the growth. If
you look at the shoot to the right you can see 3 leaf nodes with leaves. In the
next photo you can see Mary's fingers pinching out that top tip. She repeated
that on each little branch.
The third picture doesn't look much different but each tip that Mary pinched
out will encourage the new growth to come out of the sides of the leaf nodes
and become branches on their own. Then those little branches get pinched and
the little branches that come on the branch that came from the first pinched
branch will get pinched. Like an inverted pyramid. How many little
branches?...help! I lost count.
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You are going to continue to feed a good balanced liquid fertilizer every two weeks and pinch just as often as you can. In several months you should have lots of branches....25 or 30 or more. Remember that not all your branches will grow at the same rate of speed.( Pinching your basket is an easy thing to do any time you have just a few minutes.)
Be sure...[this is important].....As soon as you have lots of new growth to stop pinching otherwise you won't get any flowers. You want to stop pinching to let your fuchsia set buds and get ready to bloom. In early spring it usually takes about 6 weeks after the last pinch for you to have flowers.
Let us know if this was a helpful lesson.
e-mail
Staff@weidners.com
Good Gardening,
Evelyn Weidner
