Standard Fuchsia - Life ?

Hi,

We have grown a couple of Standard Fuchsias, Celia Smedley, from cuttings and they now stand 6ft tall with a 3ft main trunk, about 2" diameter.
The blooming head is about 3 ft+ in diameter and they flower very well all summer.

One has been full size for about 4 years and the other about 2 years.

They generally say Fuchsias do not flower as well on old wood, so wonder how long ours are likely to keep going ?

 

With old wood left in place, you gradually get all the flowers on the ends of branches, rather than a fuller effect.

Yours sound lovely. Enjoy them.

 

I assume you prune the head back each year to promote new growth and flowers.

 

I find the standards go on for years if you do as @pete suggests.

 

Thanks all,

Yes we do prune the head back each Autumn by about 50% partly so they fit inside the frost free (3c) greenhouse to over winter, though by Spring they are sprouting, even the odd flowers, so we often give them a little hair cut before putting back outside.

We bring them into the greenhouse for two reasons, one that its hard to know how hardy Celia Smedley is ?
Some sites suggest its tender, others semi hardy, plus not sure how hardy the exposed 3ft stem would be, we do know that previous ones have snapped in half during strong summer winds, so we now support them well.

We are located 100m up in the lower Yorkshire Pennines, so it can get some bad weather, though not as bad as it used to be years ago.

 

Not many places in the UK where you could leave a standard out all winter I would have thought.