A Place
For Your Fuchsias
The speaker we had booked for our August meeting unfortunately had to cancel with short notice however Nick Dobson who is very supportive of our club, stepped in and gave us a lovely talk and slide show on Fuchsias. Fuchsias are a favorite of Nick and many of our members. There are a wide range of varieties. Two of the club’s former members Mick and John Alsop bred fuchsias in Walthamstow including ‘Loveable Rascal’.
Fuchsias originated in various parts of the world, Central and South America, the West Indies, New Zealand. Most varieties grow naturally on the edges of forests and on the upper mountains. They like thin, but moist soil. Therefore, they are happy in semi-shade conditions in soil that doesn’t dry out. The seed pods (berries) are actually edible, although Nick said they don’t taste too good and need plenty of sugar. They come in a wide variety of colours.
*There are a few varieties which are exceptions to these rules:
· *Triphylla – these like dry and sunny conditions e.g. ‘Thalia’ is one variety
· *Magellanica – These are the very hardy types and can take very cold conditions and be grown as a hedge.7
· *Excorticata – The Tree fuchsia, likes to be kept moist. Grows in New Zealand where the Maori people used it to make their face paint.
Nick provided some tips on growing fuchsias:-
· For the very hardy types that can grow to 5 foot with very small flowers – cut them down by one third in Autumn to stop them rocking and damaging the roots.
· Fuchsias will loose their leaves in winter and look like a lot of dead sticks in the spring – if you underplant with bulbs you will get the colour from the bulbs and by the time the bulbs foliage is dying back, the fuchsias will be growing and disguise the dying bulbs.
· Plant 3 trailing types in a 6 inch hanging pot and you will have a ball of flower
· You can mix different varieties in a basket/pot but always mix doubles with doubles or singles with singles. If you mix doubles and singles then they flower at different times and your pot/basket will look unbalanced.
· Dark coloured and orange flowered varieties will tolerate more sun.
· Feed them with Miracle Grow once a week to get the best performance.
· When planting in the garden make a saucer shaped dip in the soil around the plant with the soil level of your fuchsia at the lower level of your dip. This allows you to water them in the dip and gradually the dip will fill with soil over time and new shoots will come from the lower level providing the plant with more support.
· They are good for pots, hanging baskets, wall baskets, window boxes. You can also grow ‘standards’ (The ones with a tall stem like a trunk and a ball of foliage and flowers at the top) and even bonsai them.
· Rosebay willowherb (a tall pink flowered weed) carries viruses which are harmful to fuchsias as well as other plants. Remove it from your gardens.
· Take cuttings in spring and plant in free draining cheap compost so they don’t get much nutrition because they will make roots quicker if they are not fed.
