"soup" wrote in message
om...
Son "got" a plant from a teacher at school (well he got two) his
teacher's has died, the one he gave to next door is still alive and pretty
healthy but the one in his greenhouse is doing really well, it is 117CM
tall (despite (because of?) getting pretty much ignored it is doing better
than next doors which is pretty much a house plant).
Thing is; he 'believes' it dies of every year, can anyone identify the
plant and how we would go about getting a cutting from it?
Instructions in words of one syllable please as I am no gardener and son
doesn't know any real terms.

http://www.sidtech.co.uk/iu/soup15528396654.JPG

Looks like a rather nice form of Coleus to me...

See.. http://www.botany.com/coleus.html

Cuttings are easy, cut the stem off just under a leaf and trim off the lower
leaves.
Either...1.Place so the bottom few cm's of stem are in a glass of water and
await roots then pot up into compost as normal.
or...2 push the bottom few cm's of stem into a small pot of damp compost,
do not let it dry out. Repot when you see roots coming out the bottom of the
pot.

You can use hormone rooting compound to speed up things but it shouldn't be
required.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
just W. of London