Fuchsia frost damage - Fatal?

Hi Everyone,

I bought the house in June, didn't move in until September and it has several large and established (I am assuming hardy) Fuschia bushes.

Even when we had a couple of nights of frost, they seemed fine and not knowing any better, I just left them to it!

Then last Sunday we had over a foot of snow, which stayed until last night. Having just gone around to assess the damage, they are all very droopy and I am assuming the current leaves/branches are now damaged to the point they are dead?

Should I just leave them now or prune back?

I am on the Gloucestershire border of Ross-on-Wye, 10 mins from the Forest of Dean.

Many thanks

 

Probably a reasonable assumption,

I would tidy them up a bit, but not prune hard back.
Growing up in Lincolnshire in the the 70's we had some fuchsias in the front garden and every winter, the foliage would fall in the autumn and we'd be left with brown sticks; these were left "to help keep the frost off" until springtime and the emergence of new shoots from the base/ below ground then they were tidied up.

 

Thank you @NigelJ that is really helpful. I am not a big Fuchsia fan, but I don't want to kill them off as they were definitely popular with some Bumblebees before the 'big freeze'!

I will get them tied up and see what happens, thanks again

 

I'd leave well alone and see what happens.
If you like them as large shrubs you can always cut back to live wood end of February.

Just a matter of scratching the bark at that time to see how far the die back goes.

 

Thank you @pete, I will hang fire until March. I didn't know about scratching the bark, thank you, although hopefully I won't make the same mistake next year

Thanks again

 

We always cut all ours right back hard to ground level , normally in Autumn but we have let them be due to the cold snap and will do them late Winter. We've had them for over 20 yrs, so what we do with them obviously works well.

 

Even here in the cold eastern side of the country we get certain fuchsias that are hardy I have a couple that would form large shrubs if I let them, they tend to die back to the woody growth once established and only in the most severe winters would they get cut to the ground by frost.

 

Thank you @Upsydaisy I never had hardy Fuchsias before and was thinking about pruning them in the Spring, so this has been a steep learning curve! the lady who owned the house/garden clearly loved them, as there are shrubs all over the garden (which look as sad as the one in the photos!), so I want to honour her and leave them or try not to kill them!

Thanks again

 

We cut ours back mainly to restrict their sizes, it's amazing just how large they get in just one Summer!!

 

That is really useful @pete. I am starting a folder of all the plants (with a plan of where they are!), so I can look after the new one (to me) properly, so will add this to my new Fuschia section!

Thanks again

 

I tend to garden by trial and error....

You never know until you try. Sometimes it comes down to the individual garden environments, what will grow happily in yours might prove a complete failure in your neighbours garden.

Just give it a go and see. ......

 

Do you have the phone number of prior owner, what did they do?????

 

Thanks for the suggestion @redstar but she is 91 years old and went into a local nursing home. That is why I am trying to honour (not kill!) what she has done in the garden, she lived here for 35 years and apparently is an amazing Lady

 

@Barders The best thing to do is to just leave them to their own devices - at least until you see the first signs of new growth in the spring. If they are big bushes then they know how to look after themselves!

This really means that with the tip of a fingernail scratch the bark, but just a tiny amount, to see if it is green underneath, in which case it's alive, or brown, in this case it means the wood is dead. This will work with any woody shrub that is leafless or even if there are dead leaves hanging on. You can even do it on roses!

 

If we are expecting hard frosts etc we give the fuchsias a good layer of peat /compost to keep the crown safe.

We tend to cut ours back by about 2/3rds, partly to look neater overwinter but that also helps limit the size of the plant the following year.

Come spring, as said, if you do not see any new buds forming, you can check if the stems have survived by rubbing the bark away with your nail, if its green then its alive, brown or black, most likely gone.
However you will probably get new shoots from the base, but they can be quite late to show compared to many other plants so do not dig up too early thinking they are dead.