anybody know how to go about doing this? I have a couple of hardy fuschias that are semi-double, and I'd like to make standards of them, so they could be dotted in the two hosta gardens, rising above the hostas...any info would be most appreciated.
making fuschia standards
One suggestion is to have your local library ILLO this book in:
Fuschias (Step-by-step Gardening Guides) (Hardcover)
* Hardcover
* Publisher: Grange Books (March, 1995)
* ISBN: 1856277038
Here are some other possibilities:
http://davesgarden.com/gbw/advanced.php?author=&publisher=&category=50&search_text=&sorter=book_name&submit=Search
No idea which one(s) cover training plants into standards tho.
Or this :)
Quoting:
Horticulture, The Magazine of American Gardening, June-July 1995 v73 n6 p48(2)
Training a fuchsia standard. Sonny Garcia.
Abstract: Fushias with small flowers and a upright habit are a best for a standard trained plant. The fushia should be repotted into a big enough display container. Side shoots are pruned and the plant should have a support. When desired height is reached the top is pinched back to promote side growth.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT Horticulture Ltd. Partnership 1995
Whether a garden is formal or informal, a well-placed standard can dramatically enhance its beauty. One of the most versatile plants for this garden art form is the fuchsia, with its broad range of flower shapes, sizes, and colors, and often striking foliage. Other suitable options include shrubby plants such as artemisia, bay, myrtle, rosemary, and santolina.
[Expanded Picture]To make a 36-inch standard, choose a fuchsia with large, coarse leaves and big flowers, such as `Hidcote Beauty' or `Voodoo'. For an 18-inch or smaller standard, select a variety that is finely textured and has small flowers. Fuchsia `Little Gem', `Isis', and `Oriental Lace' are all good candidates. just be sure to give the plant some shade during the hottest part of the day.
[Expanded Picture]1. CHOOSE AND REPOT THE PLANT Although it is possible to start a standard from cuttings, it is quicker to visit your local nursery and pick a plant that is already growing. The plant should be upright in habit, with a strong, straight leader.
While you are there, choose an appropriate container. Heavy terra-cotta pots with a hole for drainage are always the best, whether the standard is intended for display by itself or will be blended into the border. A 12-inch pot is suitable for a 36-inch standard, While a six-inch one is fine for an 18-inch specimen. Repot the plant using a standard potting mix with some water-absorbing polymers and a few granules of time-release fertilizer.
[Expanded Picture] [Expanded Picture]2. PRUNE BACK THE SIDE SHOOTS Use a sharp, sterile knife or scissors to remove all side branches from the plant. This will encourage top growth. Do not remove leaves growing directly on the trunk.
To support your standard, insert a redwood stake or plastic-coated metal rod close to the trunk and push it all the way down to the bottom of the pot. (You will need a two-foot stake for a 36-inch standard; a one-foot stake for an 18-inch one.) Use raffia or twine to gently tie the trunk to the stake at four evenly spaced intervals.
3. PINCH BACK THE LEADER Once the plant has three sets of leaves above the top of the stake, pinch back the growing tip. This will cause the side shoots to grow and form a bushy head. Pinching will also increase the number of buds produced. Do the same to the side shoots when they have a minimum of three sets of leaves.
[Expanded Picture]As soon as the head has reached a pleasing size (one that is in proportion to the trunk and pot), stop pinching so blooming may begin. Gently remove any leaves that remain on the trunk, or allow them to drop off naturally.
4. MAINTAIN THE STANDARD To thrive, fuchsias need regular watering - in fact, it is almost impossible to overwater one if the pot has good drainage. Frequent misting will keep the foliage clean and help control pests. For continuous bloom, apply half-strength doses of a complete liquid fertilizer every two weeks. Remove old and faded flowers often.
Since fuchsias blossom on new wood, you should cut back the head of your standard by one-third each fall. (This will also keep the plant the appropriate size and shape.) If you live in a cold-winter area, bring your plant into the greenhouse or a well-lit room before the first frost.
Good luck (and from what I've read above (& elsewhere)........don't forget to mist it.
Good instructions, I have a fuschia I might try this with. I really like the looks of standards, and this doesn't sound to complicated.
Cindy
lilypon,
thanks so much for the excellent and detailed info, and the book suggestion - I love DG, I'm a complete newbie, and still can't get over how helpful everybody is!
You can surf on Fuchsia Association sites, they have incredibles pics and information too. This is my duty this year in 3rd year (horticultural school) to grow fuchsia small standards. Small ones because large ones are taking 18 months to realize.
Good luck!
Your welcome. :)
see how much of a newbie I am, didn't even know there was such a thing as a Fushcia Association. learn more on DG than anywhere else so far.
Yes, especially in the UK and Germany, there are many societies, there are some in the USA and one in BC:
http://www.bcfuchsiasociety.com/aboutus.html
http://www.americanfuchsiasociety.org/pacificfuchsisocieties.html
You might even think trying hybridization on your own, it is pretty easy. You might end with some beauties ;-))
zarcanat, have you done this? got any pics?
No, I will receive my rooted cutting in a few weeks, but I will try to remember posting my pics since you are interested. Actually it is pretty simple to do it without any chemicals. You pinch the twigs every 2-3 nodes so more twigs will appear. It is easier to grow your standard from a vegetative cutting (not blooming) under short days (12h and minus), I will use all its energy to grow trunk and twigs instead of blooming. Never let dry the soil nor the root ball fill completely the pot since it will induce wood hardening and blooming. If you have the chance to have a cutting with leaves grouped by 3 this will be an easier task, it will increase head uniformity and density .
The only picture so far is one from this summer where I was growing a fuchsia plant as a cone, it was not at peak flowering though.
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/86157/
I pruned back my big one so it is pretty ugly right now, only brown twigs and a few leaves.;-((
This site is a wonderfull one, you see every step of an animated fuchsia growing. http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/gfoster/index2.htm
Love that site - since I've joined DG, my list of favourites has grown exponentially.
Can I overwinter other fuschias out here, do you think? I've never tried it, have always bought them in the spring to put into huge urns I've got, and then turfed them onto the compost after the frost gets them.
We do have pretty mild winters here.
Actually I do not know your climate, if it doesn't go under 0 Celsius you might be OK otherwise you should grow the hardiess ones (F. magellanica, Canadian zone 6). Or when you know that a cold spell is comming, you can bring your pots inside a garage or cover them. Anyway you should give them a try just in case.
Maybe there are western members that could help on that topic!
Anybody manage to keep fuschias alive over winter? I had one that was in a pot up under the overhang of our place in Ukie live over, but it was kind of half-hearted the second year. Can I take cuttings, do you think, to start indoors, or is it too late? My neighbour was telling me it is possible to keep geraniums, but I've never managed to do it, and I've tried quite a few different ways...
Fuchsias cuttings taken in the fall are more difficult to root, you absolutely need rooting powder and warming cables or warming mat. Keep 3 nodes cuttings and remove the very bottom pair of leaves and all the flower buds if there is any. Avoid any wooden part, only use green parts.
There is another method that I never used though, you let your plant go dormant, when there is no leaf left, you take wood cuttings, use rooting powder, put your cuttings in a rooting media, then your pot in a bag and leave it there for a while, until leaves appear again. Check if there is sufficient rooting and open the bag gradually to make the plant adapt to the drier environment and you are done.
Good luck!
I brought my fuschias in at the end of the growing season last year and they did very well. I cut them back and removed all the leaves, washed them off, repotted them in small pots and just put them into my unheated green house. I have heard a garage would do well also. I intend to do this again with in a couple of weeks, as my fuschias are still doing quite well right now outside. I have also read that you can remove most of the leaves and un pot them and bury them in the ground in a not very wet area. Then dig them up in the spring and that is supposed to work well. I had watered them sparingly in the winter and they sort of went dormant, then in the spring they started to leaf out and off they went.I have thought of trying the bury in the ground method as well as of course space is at a premium. Hope this gives you some ideas.
Cindy
when you say bury them, do you mean the entire plant??
Yes the entire plant. I will look and see if I can find the exact info on it for you.
Cindy
I'd try anything to keep some of the ones I'm most fond of, and hate to lose and have to re-buy every year. I can just imagine trying to explain that one to some of my neighbours.
What are you doing?
I'm burying this plant, so I can overwinter it!
They already call this mini-Butchart gardens, and think I am a little, well, over-enthusiastic about gardening - is that possible???
think of it this way - you're providing entertainment and lively discussion for the neighbourhood. Burying plants is a great way to go. The best/funniest description of such activity I have ever heard was on the vinyl cafe when one of Dave's neighbours (who had smuggled a fig tree from his native italy) undertook to do this for his fig every year - even when it became a very significant size tree. I highly recommend it for chuckle reading - Pam will know which volume it's in.
Daylily, I looked at the article I read. It said to cut off all but about 3 inches of plant, shake most of the soil off and bury below the frost line in an area that will not get to damp. Last year I cut mine back and repotted them into small pots and left them in my green house. When they started to grow then I watered them more regularily and off they went. They all got to twice the size of last years growth. I might do the bury thing this year under an eve as I have more large brugs to bring in and haven't quite figured out how to make everything fit. One challenge I had with the fuschias was bugs. This year I will dip the plant into a bucket of soapy water to see if that won't help a bit.
Cindy
The second cd in Vinyl Cafe Odd Jobs has a story called The Fig Tree. It is about Dave’s elderly neighbors and the way they have chosen to hibernate.
Would this be the one Lynn?
thanks cindy, I'm going to try it, if I lose them, I won't be any further behind
jagonjune, what's vinyl cafe?
that is it pam. right on the money as usual madam librarian.
Ah, vinyl cafe, how to describe it.
Stuart McLean doing a sort of monologue/story telling about his friend Dave who has a used record store "the Vinyl Cafe" and his family wife Morley, two kids, the dog, the neighbours
FUNNY clever nostalgic CBC at its finest! which is as fine as it gets in radioland. Sundays around noon, I think. Check the website for your area.
asked a friend if she'd ever heard of it, since asking you, and she said it is wonderful, and very very funny - said I should mention the Christmas turkey, and see if I got a response, what ever that means??
we've always cut our fuschia's back in the fall and they come back great guns in the spring. This year we'll leave it out and uncut to see what happens. It's right by the garage and the dryer vent on the south side of the house. Think that's OK? or should I try something different?
i laugh so hard i cry at the christmas turkey and the neighbourhood rum punch party
Talked to the library staff today and everyone agreed his Vinyl Cafe series is fantastic........the only story that *all* commented on was the Christmas Turkey (a classic).
DH and I would rent his talking books for the long dive from the Battlefords to Moose Jaw/Broadview (which when listening to his tapes hardly took any time at all :).
I am back with some pictures
First one was taken december 12th
January 9th
Still january 9th
February 2nd
What a lovely set-up you have zarcanat!!! Is this the school's greenhouse or is it your own?
I wish it was mine, unfortunately it is at school. Here is mine:
Oh well we can all dream .... except for a few lucky ducks here. ;)
Yours looks a lot like mine (only neater ;)
My first one was a wodden rack (IKEA), my boyfriend thought I should have some improvement so he gave the new one to me on my birthday 2 years ago. And I must admit that now, I need more, I do not have enough room LOL!
LOL........re: shelving I think we are all in the same boat.....and it's only gonna get worse hanging around here! ;S
What kind of a school are you at? I can tell from the photos that equipement is top of the line. Nice to be able to use without having the overhead, isn't it. I made my first stop at the greenhouse today to see how my bruggies are doing and start setting up my volunteer schedule.
I am in an Horticultural College, the greehouse you see on the picture is an older one, we have brand new ones since this fall. I prefered to grow my plants in the older one since I didn't want to have artificial light on my fuchsias because this would have triggered them to bloom. I am keeping them on short day lenght until they reach a satisfying height, or until normal daylenght reaches 12h.