I am not trying to be argumentative, Mark. I have been a novice trader and so have you, and have been lead to believe a plant was 'easy', when it wasn't - I was out a plant AND money. I was just being honest with my experiences in trying to root these cuttings, so a newby wouldn't be upset if he/she traded for the cutting and it did rot. I was merely mentioning that this cutting is not as easy as it sounds to root. You are turning this into a negative when it is meant to be a positive. WHY would this information NOT be relevant? Are you telling me you wouldn't want to know if the possibility existed that it could rot instead of root?

Mark, The question of what makes a "good" houseplant is an interesting question, am curious to see peoples' responses. Maybe is we give folks a little time, at least a day or two, they'll start weighing in w/ some considered responses. [don't be surprised if someone first suggests we might have to define the term "good" for this question]. I believe we'll have to disagree completely about Exchange restrictions. I know what I read & just to be sure, I went back & read it again. I don't know how to invoke bold or underline in here so am quoting the entire text where I suggested you go to the area marked "Special Instructions for Exchanges." I draw your particular attention to the SECOND & PENULTIMATE items. I've highlighted those several items by using BLOCK CAPITALS (Copy & pasting it in here lost the bullets as in the original, I've inserted paragraph breaks in here from memory, my apologies in advance to GW/IVillage). "Special Instructions for Exchanges: This area is for the purpose of exchanging seeds or plants of the type covered by this forum. The exchanges were created to facilitate the arranging of trades of plants and seeds between members. PLEASE DO NOT use them to solicit donations, ask for free plants or seeds, or ASK FOR ITEMS IN EXCHANGE FOR POSTAGE. ALL REQUESTS MUST BE IN THE CONTEXT OF ARRANGING A TRADE. If you have nothing to offer at this time, please wait until you do. All exchanges are restricted to users from a particular country, region or state. If it isn't indicated otherwise, the exchange is restricted to residents of the U.S. To find an exchange for your location, check the the exchange index. Each post must have a type of trade, subject and a message. Trading is done at users' discretion. GardenWeb has no control or responsibility over trades arranged here. Keep in mind some traders may let you down, so it might be wise to keep your initial trade with someone limited to smaller items. Messages addressed to or meant for particular users should be sent via email and are not allowed in the exchanges. If you have trouble with another person coming through with their end of a trade, you must deal with it privately. It is the consensus of the forum users that this type of thing be kept out of our forums. Any public accusation in this forum, or elsewhere at GardenWeb, will result in the accuser being banned. To avoid problems when shipping across borders and some state lines, it is best to ship plants bare-rooted and to label the container as such. It is up to the users involved to determine what is legal and what is not. THIS FORUM IS FOR THE PURPOSE OF EXCHANGING MATERIAL, THERE SHOULD BE NO NEED TO MENTION MONEY IN ANY POSTINGS. IF MONEY IS MENTIONED, THE POSTING WILL BE CONSIDERED AN ADVERTISEMENT AND THE POSTER WILL BE BANNED. Trading of patented material is unlawful and is strictly forbidden."

mytime, Sorry to not follow up. Gardenweb was not forwarding responses to this post (and for a while all my posts) so I was not aware that anyone had responded to it. I had some bad luck propagating earlier this year and then got sidetracked. Fuchsia boliviana Alba cuttings started to root but some sort of fungus caused problems and killed them. The Correa cuttings I first tried did not root. I will start some new ones now, with bottom heat (which I did not use before). Pretty commonly even without bottom heat factored in a lot of plants propagate poorly in winter. So we'll see. I started a bunch of Deppea cuttings a week ago. That plant had some bug problems earlier in the year and I was reluctant to take a lot of cuttings until it fully recovered. I may or may not start new cuttings of the F. boliviana Alba soon; I'm not sure where that ranks on the list of things that I need/want to propagate. However, that plant has done really well and should produce a steady crop of berries in the near future. Here's a photo of the plant from about 10 days ago: And here's a closeup of the berries on one inflorescence: I find it amusing how the berries get long, and then get fat. So mytime, maybe I should contact you when things start to root. As far as the berries, I might try one batch of seeds, but in general I don't have a use for them. I guess I could eat them... If anyone wants a berry for postage (then they can clean out the seeds) I can send one for postage. They can get a bit soft when ripe, and the berry may end up smushed. I'm guessing that's not a problem. Andrea, thanks for the propagation advice. I do enjoy trying to see how many cuttings I can get from limited material. I didn't realize the stems can be split like that. If the seeds are easy, maybe I'll try some. I generally don't like growing things from tiny seeds, especially if they are easy to root. However I've never tried Fuchsias. I see the Fuchsia forum has no exchange site, so I'll mention it here. I'm looking for the variegated F. procumbens, which I believe goes by the name 'Mary Miller'. In trade, I have a lot of things, but only a few Fuchsias and none of them propagated at the moment. The other Fuchsias I have are the regular procumbens, denticulata, 'First Success' (F. paniculata x F. splendens'), F. x baccillaris and of course F. boliviana Alba. I may have access to F. splendens as well; my old plant went to a friends house in the area. Perhaps I'll try start a F. procumbens thread when my new F. procumbens opens another flower and repeat the question about the variegated cultivar. I thought I'd mention that an interesting source I've found locally for small inexpensive plants is Lone Pine Gardens, which is a wholesaler for succulents and bonsai plants. Their little Fuchsias are just a few dollars, and are often found in the bonsai section of nurseries (in N. California at least). I got 'First Success', procumbens, and x bacillaris from them. The plant on the right, of course, is Fuchsia 'First Success', which seems to be a really nice hybrid.

most of those aren't native plants. The native ones that I recognise are: Ajuga reptans; Casuarina nana; Grevillea 'Molonglo'; Myoporum parvifolium; Rulingia hermanniifolia; Scaevola aemula; Scaevola albida; Scleranthus biflorus; I've never had much luck with scleranthus, neither in Canberra nor Melbourne. It seems to died from under watering and over watering too easily. Investigate your council tip and see if they have big piles of old chipped garden waste. As long as it is dark brown and doesn't have any obvious weeds growing in it,it should be find to use as a soil conditioner. You can probably pay someone to deliver a truckload of the stuff for a tuppence and spread that out. Avoid fresh mulches like woodchip or pine bark, as they are loaded with tannins which stunt growth, and pull the nitrogen out of the soil. Another possible mulch is road metal, which is cheap, readily available and looks quite interesting (to me, anyway). You can usually get blue metal (a kind of basalt) or granite. Canberra should also still sell 'granitic sand', a form of decomposed granite which makes a dense layer (though often contains a fair amount of clay). Start saving those newspapers!