Fuchsia perfect!
Think they’re just for bedding? Don’t be fooled... these exotic beauties are astonishingly tough
MY 12-YEAR-old daughter’s f avourite f l owers are fuchsias. Not the huge, flamboyant baubles that dangle from the branches of tender bedding types, but the more slender, subtle and graceful blooms that are carried for months on end by shrub-like, hardy fuchsias.
As a youngster, Lily called them ‘dancing ladies’ because the shape of the flowers conjured up an image of tiny ballerinas. She would furtively pluck the cerise and purple pendant blooms from a specimen in our neighbour’s front garden and twirl them around in the air.
I’m sure she’s not alone in making this comparison. To an imaginative child, the ovary resembles a head and the tube below a body, while the swept-back petals (technically sepals) form a tutu and the circle of petals (corolla) beneath are an inner skirt. The stamens look like dangling legs.
Mainly native to Central and South America, fuchsias are a massive tribe of evergreen and deciduous plants. Due to their exotic origins, a number of species will turn up their toes at the first sniff of frost, but hardy fuchsias can cope down to -15C.
In colder parts of the country, hardy fuchsias tend to lose all of their leaves over winter, while in milder places there are specimens that are semievergreen and continue to produce flowers. In extreme winters the top growth might be knocked back, but plants usually regrow from the ground in spring.
Now is a good time for planting. They will produce plenty of roots during the growing season, ensuring they are established by winter. Getting them in now also means that you can enjoy their flowers, which are best from June to October.
Thousands of fuchsia varieties are available in Britain, with about 170 that can be classed as hardy. There is great diversity among them. Ranging in height from 1ft to 6ft, these bushy shrubs boast single or double flowers in hues of white, pink, red, orange and purple. Some are a single colour, while others have sepals and petals in contrasting shades. Hardy fuchsias tend to have much smaller flowers than tender bedding types, with skinny blooms that measure 1⁄ 2 in to 2in in length. Yet there are exceptions. ‘ Delta’s Sarah’ has cracking, fat purplish-blue and white flowers about 3in across, and ‘Garden News’ has similar-sized magenta and pink ones. ‘Lottie Hobby’ is at the other end of the scale with tiny dark pink flowers on 11⁄ 2 fttall plants, while ‘Tom Thumb’ is a variety from 1850 with gorgeous 11⁄ 2 in- wide purple and red blooms on 1ft stems. ‘ Star Wars’ reaches 21⁄ and boasts flowers with swept- back white sepals above a lavender blue corolla.
LAUNCHED in the early 1960s ,‘Hawkshead’ is the only hardy type with pure white flowers. The elegant single blooms are borne in great profusion on 5ft-tall, upright bushes over a long period. It’s a perfect shrub for illuminating a slightly shaded spot.
‘ Lady Boothby’ is sometimes described as a climbing fuchsia. The purple and magenta variety is not self-clinging but the stems can reach 10ft in a season, making it ideal for training against trellis and other structures.
Most hardy fuchsias are grown for their flowers, but some have dazzling foliage. The carmine and purple flowers of ‘Tom West’ appear above green and cream variegated leaves that are flushed with pink, while ‘Baby Thumb’ is a dwarf variety with green and yellowish leaves. My favourite fancy-leaved fuchsia has to be ‘Genii’ for its golden leaves held on bright red stems.
Hardy fuchsias are happy in sun or a partially shaded spot, in moist but well-drained soil. Plant hardy fuchsias in holes that are about 5in deeper than the rootball to protect the roots from extremes of hot and cold.