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Goof plug! Stupid smarty-pants spell check!

Pinching early and often would help with the size, making them fuller and shorter. Thank you for letting me know how your pruning went! Sometimes my fuchsias get taller then I'd like even with early pinching and I just shorten the tall stems here and there and the plant still looks great. This may sacrifice a few flowers but I don't notice it lacking blooms. Avoid cutting too far down an already tall stem though because you might not get any blooms to form. Go easy at first until you see how your fuchsia reacts. -mary

Thanks for sharing trishvanriper1977. This is true but be careful because if it's made too mushy with the hot water the plug could easily wobble going in and making a bigger hole that could leak. I do use hot water from my thermos for attaching all the tubing and mainlines though. -mary

Thank you prasaddxit. You'll really want one of these tools after I file down the punch a little to make sure the connector fits on it smoothly. Otherwise when you try to install the connector with the punch the connecter will get stuck on the punch and you'll never get it off. Please, email me directly through my website thegardeningtutor.com and let's see if I can get one of these to you. -mary

Thanks for watching Suzanne. I'm glad this video has inspired you! All my videos are made to be timeless. No matter how old they are the information is still relevant. Thank you for mentioning it as it's good for people to know the information is still helpful. I'm right there with you . . . weeding! -mary

That's so cool. Thank you for letting me know jodielang. And thanks for watching! -mary

Thank you so much Jimmy. I appreciate your time. Wishing you beautiful pansies from now on! -mary

Hi adriankap, Congratulations on your pansies! Experimenting is what makes gardening so fun. I would place them where they get lots of morning sun but not hot afternoon direct sun. Let's see what happens. Let us know. -mary

Hi Angel, did you read my update in the description? Also, I just put photos of how I pruned my Clematis armandiii this year on the gardening tutor facebook page. Thank you for watching. You can also email me directly through thegardeningtutor.com -mary

Thank you Anne. You made my day! -mary

You're welcome Shirley. Thanks for watching. -mary

Hi R C, I agree, Phormiums are tough. And you're right about not feeling guilty now. I still have this old phormium and it's only 3 feet or so tall with a slender bottom. My friend who bought the same phormium at the same time butchered his after letting it grow as it wanted to for a few years. Then he had to take it out because, as you know, the form was never coming back. It's so nice to talk with you. Thank you for watching! I enjoy knowing that my videos are still being watched because they are timeless. Do you know I also have a newsletter and blog? You're welcome to sign up for each on my website. I never share your email and there are no outside ads on my website. Cheers! -mary thegardeningtutor.com @thegardeningtutor

Thank you gervoi. -mary

Hi Donna, I'm glad you asked because not all Berberis respond well to hard pruning all their stems. But 'Red Rocket' is a thunberii like the 'Atropurpurea' in the video. I prune mine in February before we are out of frost season and it sits there until it knows when to push new growth. With 'Red Rocket' though (since I have not worked with this one) I would only prune down half of the stems this year and see how it responds. Plus, I do not have to do a hard pruning of every stem every year. I only need to do that to keep mine smaller. You will get nice, new stems that have beautiful color from the hard pruned stems. Also, each year you can just pick a few (maybe one in 4) of the old stems and cut them out. Feel free to ask me if this wasn't a clear description. Thank you for watching! -mary

Thank you so much babyboo. I love your handle. Thank you for taking the time to watch. -mary

You're welcome FishBeWithYou. I appreciate the thank you. -mary

You're so welcome. -mary

Wow, that is so cool 827. Pansies are so hardy! thank you for watching and commenting. -mary

Oh, so sorry for this late reply 2060. I leave the stems of the large flowering hybrid types of clematis all winter until the buds start to plump up. thank you for watching! -mary

Sure NotSoLiberal, www.wyattsupply.com/ I'm not sure how great their website is. They are my local supplier here in Santa Rosa, Ca. You may need to call them. thanks for watching. -mary

I found them at Home Depot or Amazon. They are called drip barbed valves.

You're so welcome mrburgess. Thank you for taking time to watch and comment. Have a great day! -mary

Awww, thank you so much dfu! You have made my week and it's only Monday. I'm going to print out your sweet comment and keep it at my desk. I would love to hear how it goes for you with your hydrangeas in the future. I really appreciate the time you took to watch and comment! -mary

Hi ashanti, That snail in the video was a real photo bomb wasn't it? There are two options for you that I use one is Sluggo Plus which is a bait for snails, slugs, earwigs, cutworms etc. The other is a new spray I've been using with great success just for snails and slugs, it's called All Natural Snail and Slug spray by Monterey. It is a killer and a repellent. Not to worry that the spray liquid is brown, it does not discolor leaves when sprayed on them. I spray the ground around my plants and the plants too. Let us know how it goes! -mary

You're welcome Halleylow. thank you for taking the time to watch. You must have an excellent attention span! -mary :)

You're so welcome Gloria. Thank you for watching. You can also watch my videos without ads on The Gardening Tutor Vimeo Channel. Have a great day! -mary

I'm sorry Brookeerdman. You could pour some boiling hot water on the mailine to see if this helps but not too so much water that you make the mainline mushy. the other think I do sometimes is use channel locks to hold the mainline so it does not collapse while I'm pushing the plug in. When i use channel locks I put cloth between the locks jaws and the mainline so they do not damage the mainline. Your other option is to cut the line to remove the hole and use a mainline sized connector to put the line back together. I wish I was there with you to help. Make sure you put a brick or rock behind the mainline where you're pushing the plug in so that there is resistence. -mary

Hellooo Kathryn in Australia!.Welcome to Gardening! How magical is this that we can write to each other, ha. You are in deep winter now in Australia, right? You'll need to be careful about pruning super old stems down as far as I pruned my younger stemmed fuchsias in the video (my plants are old but have been pruned hard every year so all have new stems from close to the ground) because the really old stems may not produce new growth. You could experiment by pruning a few on each plant first. If it's not winter there and your fuchsias have already pushed growth it's not the best time to prune hard anyway. You could still experiment with pruning just a few hard though to see what happens. Also, if each fuchsia has lots of crossing stems or dead stems you can prune those out to clean up the whole appearance of the plant. If they have pushed growth, you could prune down to the closest to the ground new stem. I hope that makes sense. I wish I was there to work with you. Let me know if you need more clarification. Please, let me know what the season is there and if they have already pushed new growth. -mary

Dear Mary, thanks for your helpful reply. Yes it is the middle of winter here. My fuchsias have definitely finished their growth and so I think they’re ready to be pruned. I’ll prune some the old stems back hard and see what happens. I’ll let you know if they get new growth when the spring comes in September. Kind regards, Kathryn

Aww, I'm sorry this happened. :(

You aren't alone. Same here. 🙂

Hi, I live in England equivalent zone 7a and have had mine for years. Never shown signs of dying.

Hi Christine, aww thank you for writing. I'm so glad you found my video. I have a mophead (the one in the video) that is over 30 years old now. Every year I prune it and it has bloomed beautifully year after year, all while staying less than 3 feet tall and wide (with no "trunk"). It can be done, ha! Thank you for your feedback I really appreciate the time you took to write. -mary

Hi JP You . . . made . . my . . .day! Thank you! -mary

Hi Velvet, ooooh I'm sorry to hear this. Thank you for watching and commenting! Know that while you are weeding I am probably weeding too. Last year I started to count the varieties of weeds I have and when I got to 15 and there were still more I stopped counting. It was depressing. -Take Care, mary