The lowdown on fuchsia ‘Hidcote Beauty’
Mystery still surrounds the unknown breeder of this delightful popular variety
Iwas recently asked by a volunteer at the National Trust Hidcote Manor Garden if I knew anything of the history of the beautiful fuchsia ‘Hidcote Beauty’, as most of the old records at the house had been lost or destroyed. This is a beautiful fuchsia with a slightly lax spreading habit and single flowers of waxy cream and pale salmon-pink. It’s free flowering and can be trained for a basket or an excellent taller standard. The fact it’s so widely available indicates how popular it still is.
A starting point was Leo Boullemier’s checklist of fuchsias. He describes the award of an American Fuchsia Society Honorary Certificate of Merit in 1962 to ‘Hidcote Beauty’. The notes state this variety was discovered in 1948 by Mr A. Webb, a committee member of the British Fuchsia Society (BFS), growing in Major Johnson’s garden at Hidcote Manor, near Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, hence the name. It was a seedling raised by Major Johnson’s gardener but completely overlooked. Mr Webb was granted permission to bring the variety to the notice of fuchsia lovers. Further research in the old BFS publications reveal this was the case and it was sent out to members as part of the 1949 plant distribution.
In most publications it’s attributed to Webb, 1948, but clearly, he was the one who discovered it, not the actual raiser who was the unknown gardener at Hidcote Gardens and it was probably raised a few years earlier. If anyone knows anything more about the actual gardener who raised it, I’d be very interested to hear about them.