Fuchsia Cultivation

I just had some dangerous over hanging branches removed from a tree planted in the neighbors yard and my large fuchsia tree took a big hit. They "pruned" and now I'm wondering if I should trim up the other side. This is such a bad time to prune and I'm worried that the bare stems have been seriously damaged since some of the bark has been compromised as well. I am so disheartened by the damage that I can hardly look at it (much less take a photo), but I know that in the longrun this will bring more sunshine to the whole garden bed. I have a bamboo stick to help support the offended trunk.

Another veiw...Help!!!

Ouch!! My heart goes out to you! Yes, I would trim a bit off of the tops because now all of the growth is on the ends. How soon can you expect freezing temps? Because as long as it is above freezing and there is sunshine, they should continue to grow a bit and store nutrients in their bark for the spring.
My two teenage cats have done about the same amount of damage to my big old F. magellanica alba! The one with wood 5 inches in diameter!
They have discovered they can get up onto the fence by climbing in it......
I would be really upset, if I didn't know that it can put out new spikes from the ground next spring that can rival any blackberry or climbing rose bush!
I've got to go for a bit, but I am going to go take photos of the damage to mine and post them here, so we can monitor the progress of both yours and mine.
Plus, you will see you are not alone!!

This message was edited Sep 29, 2009 2:50 PM

I already did some severe pruning after the first time they climbed up in it and broke branches coming down. So you will see some bare trunks. But if I took a close up, you'd see little green shoots appearing along them. Now I have to tie up the big branches going sideways. But I'm not sure if I shouldn't wait until the kittens get better at climbing....

Thanks for the advice PC. We usually have our first frost around the middle of October, later if we are lucky.
Looks like your damaged plant is of the same variety.

The main branch you see here, is all new growth from this year. So hang in there, both of our bushes will recover! This is F. magellanica alba

Here is a vase full of them from before Gary and Marion turned it into a jungle gym! These lasted a week in the vase, pretty good, I think, for cut flowers. Maybe next spring I'll start a thread on fuchsia floral arrangements ;-D

Here is a photo disproving that way old fashioned notion that you have to remove the berries on a fuchsia if you want it to keep blooming. I have never found that to be true. I think people just thought perhaps they weren't as pretty as the flowers and they take energy from the plant that could otherwise be used for flowers. A well planted and fed fuchsia should be able to do both.
So if you are like me, and want those berries, then now you can rest assured your fuchsia will indeed continue to bloom while the berries ripen ;-)
Some fuchsias will be covered with berries at times, with few blossoms, but if you look closely, they are busy producing new blossoms at the ends of the same branches.
This is Delta's Parade on October 6, 2009

Lovely Floral arrangement PC.
I didn't know that they have berries. But I like 'em. : - )
Do the birds eat the berries or are they edible? I'm all for letting my feathered friends forage for their own food. LOL!
Walk In Beauty!
SingingWolf

Yes, there are edible!! That was one of my inspirations for collecting so many different varieties, I am trying to find out which one tastes the best!
They sell the fruits from some speicies in the fruit markets of Brazil. Some get bigger than large grapes, some get about the size of a dried raisin. So far, the best tasting ones are those on Lycioides, second best Black Prince. But I have a whole slew of varieties that won't have ripe berries on them till next spring.
In another thread, we were joking that I'd have to have everyone up here for a tasting/wine/cheese party. What fuchsia berry goes with that cheese and that wine, ha, ha! I have heard they make good jam too. But none of the ripe ones have made it into the house yet ;-)

That's a special bonus for me! : - )
Thanks for letting me know, PC.
WIB!
SW

Here is Voodoo. Also with a combo of flowers, buds, and berries. This bush is almost as tall as me now, which ain't saying that much, ha, ha! Just that it is a big healthy bush and has been out in the full sun, wind, fog, cold, you name it, for ten years now. All the open flowers fried during the heat wave at the end of September, but as you can see, it didn't waste any time putting out more! The berries on Voodoo are huge compared to others, but kinda bland. Maybe they'd make good filler for a jam or pie. Funny thing is though, I don't know if the birds eat them or not. I have plenty of birds that don't seem to mind stealing my cherries and ruining every fig they can reach. If they took the whole fig, it wouldn't bother me. But NO! They have to put a few little peck holes in each one.............. I digress.
Here is my Voodoo on 10/9/2009

Just an update of the 2 fuchsias that took a hit last fall...........they both died to the ground (never happened before) but I was able to get 4 new plants from the one I believe is Fuchsia magellanica 'Alba' on the left.
they are both recovering nicely

Beautiful garden Azorina, and is that your greenhouse I see above and to the right?

Nope sorry to say it is the neighbors. No GH sniff!

Hey, mine is only a tiny five shelf affair. Everyone in my collection has to be able to live out in the elements or not at all. Only new babies get coddled. And in the summer, it gets full sun, so I only use it to start seeds. Like a new batch of fresh basil. Can't run out of fresh basil!

Ok I'm moving!! Not a lot of coddling in my yard. Unfortuately some of my plant tags become grave markers, ha

It happens to us all! The heat wave we just had may have created some grave markers here as well. I am hoping two two hybrids that went into shock will pull out of it. Some need a bit of shade and some don't. And since there is very little info on most of the members of my collection, I don't find out what they need until I see for myself how they do. Fortunately, most fuchsia will recover even from losing all of their leaves in extreme heat, or all live growth above ground in extreme cold.