I’ve got a lovely container filled with Coleus and Hibiscus that needed a little attention.  The coleus was starting to get a little leggy - and unlike the human world, leggy in the plant world is not such a good thing.  Basically, the stems were stretching out and I wanted the plants to be bushier.  To achieve this, I pinched the long stems off directly above a set of leaves or branching stems.  What will happen over the next few days, is that new branches and leaves will appear below and at the junction where I did the pinching - which will make the plant look far fuller. 

Instead of throwing the pinched pieces into the composter, I’ll use them to make new plants.   Plants like Coleus are easy to root - and need no rooting hormone - just poke them into some moist soilless mix in a pot and then pop the whole thing into a plastic bag.  Put the plastic bag in a shady location and in a couple of weeks, open the bag and test (pull gently) to see if they’ve put out roots.  If not, recover and try again in another week.  Otherwise, if all is well, water them and treat them as you would any other new plant.  When these are fully established, I’m going to use them to fill in some holes in my other planters that have been created by the hungry slugs and snails.