Edible Fuchisa berry?

Hi Tracey,

I've been waiting for someone to post something about edible Fuchsia berries.

First of all they are all edible, they remind me of cherries. They are nice and make a good addition to a fruit salad.

In USA they use them in jam as @NigelJ says and also in apple pies. So, chances are anyone who's ever had apple pie in USA has already eaten them.

In South America Fuchsia Boliviana and Fuchsia Boliviana Luxurians Alba are both grown commercially for their berries which grow like bunches of grapes.

Another Fuchsia is being promoted as a fruit bush this year ( offhand I can't remember the name or the company but I will find out later ).
This one is one of the Paniculata types ( it has flowers in bunches like Lilac ) and if I were to buy one it would be this one as it is a named Cultivar and on tho one also they grow like bunches of grapes.

As for the T&M offer, as @longk says I think is all just hype. I've had a look at the photos and I have to agree, they are clearly showing two different cultivars, 1 is a double ( the one in the bowl ) which I personally wouldn't let go to seed (berry ) as it takes too much energy out of the plant. The other ( in the separate photo ) looks like a bog standard red/purple cultivar to me. I wouldn't buy anything like this unless it was a named plant with full growing and caring for instructions.

 

Sorry about this extra bit, it won't let me edit......

Generally speaking, remember that when you let any plant go to seed you're letting it use up energy on producing fruit/seed that would be much better used in producing more flowers.

That is why the smaller bunch - flowered types are better if you want to grow them for the fruit.
Once a large double flowered cultivar starts producing seed it generally stops flowering altogether ( except for the odd one or two).

 

Hi again....

Right then, I've got it now

The only one that I would purposely buy is called " Censation " . It's a hybrid of Fuchsia Arborescens and has been bred to produce more fruit.





Depending where you are, it can be grown as a hardy outside and would grow eventually to around 9/10' as a small tree.

The only place I know that are selling it is Spalding Bulbs. ( sorry I can't put links up off my phone ). They are selling established plants not plugs.

The only other one I know to which had been bred and named as a fruit bearing bush is called " Gummiberry ". This was available last year from Suttons Seeds as small plants or seeds but I haven't seen it available this year yet.

 

I can't help, I'm sorry ...
I don't know which varieties are pictured in that advert. It's very difficult to identify Fuchsias - there are so many similar ones.
Maybe they are new varieties grown especially for their berries.

I've never bought anything from T&M.

I've never tasted a Fuchsia berry either. I always cut the fading flowers off.

 

That's the one that we have which produces the best tasting berries (in our garden). It's a prolific bloomer but not a prolific fruiter.

 

Which one is that than Longk. It reminds me of one if my favourites " Royal Velvet ".

 

No idea Anthony, it was bought years ago.

 

I don't think it's much about the energy it uses, as this shouldn't matter if the soil is good. It's more that the flowers are just a means to an end. They are there to enable fruit to be produced in order to continue the lifecycle. Once fruit has been produced, the plant has no further need for flowers. The growing fruit releases a hormone back into the plant, effectively telling it not to bother producing more flowers but to divert all reserves to ensuring the successful development of seeds in the fruit.

 

I like that. I wonder if it would do well in my south facing front garden. It gets quite warm out there. Downside is it's a bit prone to drying out in summer.

 

Strange coincidence this.

I was at a nursery yesterday and they had loads of fuschias, me, I grow a few but nothing exceptional, but one plant took my eye as being different, it was F. corymbiflora, just had totally different leaves to most others.
On googling it, I find it produces edible fruits which are supposed to be quite tasty.

Unfortunately I just need to buy a humming bird now in order to get the flowers pollinated.