FUCHSIA'S - 2015

Hi Amymac, is your swingtime ( the top pic) in a draught or have you moved it from a warm place straight outside as the leaves look as though they've suffered damage from being in the cold.

 

Sorry, there's no such thing as an annual fuchsia.

 

Start by cutting all the soft new growth off but try not to cut into the old wood ( usually just the top 2 or 3 inches),
Then lift the plants if in baskets or used in the ground as bedding, or rmove from their pots and remove as much of the old compost as possible without damaging the root system.
Then pot them into the smallest pot they'll go into using fresh compot.
The important thing is to keep them just moist. If kept below 5 deg C they wii go dormant. If they're kept above 5 deg C they'll carry on growing slowly ( just ticking over) in this case they need as much light as you can give them.

One of the things I always do is take 3 or 4 cuttings into a 3" pot around October and keep these growing slowly on a windowsill, just incase any don't survive.

 

I like the look of Shrimp Cocktail FC, I'll keep that one in mind.

 

Ooooo, I wasn't hinting but that would be lovely, thank you.

 

It was fine until we had those gales, blasted British weather! I'm hoping it will be ok, it's growing and the newer leaves are green so taking that as a good sign!

 

I'll give you a shout in a month or so for a progress update, meanwhile I'll think of something for a swap.

 

Tony so they have only different levels off hardiness ? Like FC I thought most you just let go at the end off the season . If you have room and a mild heat you could keep them all going through the winter - and flowering?

 

Hi Harry

Yeah, basically it's all down to temperature and keeping them just moist.

As for flowering there are two ways to enjoy them during the winter......

You can just prune them lightly and then grow on as normal in the brightest light possible, but this would only really work with singles and some of the hardier ones such as " Display" or " Alice Hoffman". I did this with my basket of " Cascade", it stayed in my unheated bedroom and didn't stop flowering until I hard pruned it in February.

There are also Fuchsias that flower during the winter such as " Space Shuttle" or Daryn John Woods" and also the Tryphilla cultivars e.g. "Thalia" .

 

I used to buy Blackie every year and toss it in the autumn as it said tender on the labels. I now have one in the ground that has seen off three winters without death!

 

can I start this post by saying that there is some very bad information/labelling going on by some growers/sellers which I think is to get people to discard plants and buy again year on year. It stinks to me of sheer profiteering.


Now here goes...........

A couple of years ago the hardiness ratings were changed and the new numbers are not the direct equivalent of the old ones. Also the temperatures now given are absolute minimum temperatures an are not to be taken as average temperatures throughout the season.

At this time Fuchsias were reclassified, before they were either tender of hardy.
Now there are 4 classifications......

Hardy
Half hardy (can survive outside as long as they are planted as a hardy and then given extra protection as well)
Tender (need a minimum of 1 deg, preferably 3 deg)
Warm Temperate ( need a minimum of 5 deg), but do better if not dropped below 8/10 degrees.

Because of global warming, at this time a lot of Fuchsias were re-classified (hence your Roesse blacky Longk, that is one of the ones that was tender and is now half hardy). Others such as F. Arborescens, Checkerboard, Royal velvet and a couple of Triphyllas have now been out on this list along with about a hundred others.

The hardy list has also been increased by a slightly lesser amount but does now include well known names such as Annabel, Celia Smedley, Mrs Lovell Swisher snd Paula Jane.


Hope I haven't confused anyone, anything you want to know or check just ask me