Who would like to see a Fuchsia Forum!?

Hi Everyone! I have a collection of 60 upright hardy fuchsia's and plan on adding to that collection today! I can't even find photos of 6 of the last 10 I bought. So I am anxiously waiting for them to grow big enough to bloom.
I am hoping that if enough of us are interested in sharing our adventures with fuchsia's, that DavesGarden will give us our own forum ;-)
What do you think?
Here is a photo of one of my favorites, Delta's Parade, this guy blooms year round here in zone 9b. That is one just one of the things I love about fuchsia's, the local hummingbirds and I have color year round!
And this photo illustrates another thing I love about fuchsia's, and that is how the colors change as the flower opens.
Let's get a forum going here :-D

I would love to see a fuchsia forum. I have started about three years ago or so using them as garden plants rather than just in the hanging planters, and have started adding several different hardy varieties as well. It is nice to have the color later in the season when a lot of plants are past their prime.

60 hardy fuchsias. That's a lot!!

Here's a link to the NW Fuchsia Society: http://www.nwfuchsiasociety.com/

And a link to Delta's Parade for sale in Dave's:

http://davesgarden.com/products/market/view/6613/

Hmmmmm, I might have to take a look at that.

Kathy

I'd be interested. I'd like to know if any are hardy to zone 7. At a nursery today, I saw one - it said hardy to zone 6, but I'm not convinced. Anybody know anything about this, please?

Hi Jan23, yes they can be! Especially the uprights when they are planted deep in the ground. I was just telling someone in the Shady Garden forum about them. Just last week I proved to a friend of mine that his fuchsia was not dead from the harsh winter in his area. Everything above ground was toast. But he already had a foot of new growth he hadn't seen because of all the leather ferns surrounding the base.
The secret is to make sure you have nodes on stems buried deep, so that they can produce new shoots in the spring. And put a nice thick layer of mulch around the base of the bush. I am working on a website right now, when it is done, you will see what I consider to be the best example of how big a fuchsia can get in just one year. It is huge and last year it was just a cutting I got from a friend's garden.

Rarejem, I agree, they make great landscaping plants. I am even experimenting with Magellanica as a hedge! It has such nice dense growth when it is clipped. Each variety has it's own growth pattern and it is interesting to see what shape they take on.
When I asked DavesGarden about a fuchsia forum, they said it was up to all of us to express enough interest in one.
I am looking forward to seeing photos of everyones fuchsia's!!

Thanks Kathy! I had the Northwest Fuchsia Society in my favorites and forgot about them when I was trying to find photos of the new starts I bought this Sunday. I had been looking at European sites to find examples. So I just got to see a photo of Voltaire! Now I have to go back and see if I can find the others, what fun!

Thank YOU PC, for re-igniting interest in these guys. My biggest frustration with fuchsias is overwintering them, so I'll be interesting in everything I can hear about how to make that easier/work.

Jan, I am zone 7 and have never lost a hardy fuschia. As a matter of fact, even this last rotten winter which did in several of my cistus and was terror on my roses, I not only have all of my hardies coming back, but several of the annual ones I planted as well. I will say that I don't expect new growth from any of last year's stems, which I do get on a regular basis when the winter is mild, but once they are established, fuschias grow very quickly. And they are a lovely landscape plant as they come in so many different forms.

This is what is left of my Dark Eyes annual fuschia from last year's growth.

And this is the happy little plant at the bottom.

Hi Kathy, While I was checking out the Northwest Fuchsia Society website, I noticed they have an excellent illustration of how to plant hardy fuchsia's to ensure their survival for the winter. Mine have survived freezes that killed my lantana's, hybiscus, and my hydrangea's! Most of my specimens are in 15 gallon containers so I can move them all close together for the winter. At which time I also pack a thick layer of hay/alphalfa/mulch around and inbetween them. For everyone in the ground, I pile up about a foot of the same type of material all around their base.
Here is the one I keep right outside my front door this time of year. The Duchess of Albany. You should see the whole bush, it is just stunning!!

And this is my annual Golden Anniversary, which I was dredfully afraid that I had killed as I moved it this spring before our second cold snap...it had gotten way too tall for where it was in the garden. Might not be quite so tall this year, but it's definitely going to put on a show.

And keep in mind, these are not my hardies, but the ones that Fred Meyer's sells for 50 cents a piece at their fuschia sale.

Thanks Rarejem! Now people can see for themselves that fuchsia's can and will come back up after everything above ground freezes! I will be looking forward to photos of them when they are blooming again :-)
I have also posted on the California forum, ha, ha, you would think there would be allot of people down here interested in fuchsia's, but I haven't gotten a responce yet....

PC, I can just imagine how beautiful your collection must be! I am still amazed at the variety of shapes and colors that are available. I have only one variety that is a full fledged "bush" yet, but am anxiously awaiting my others growing up. Do most hardy varieties spread easily? My one large kid has given me several starts to spread around my pond, and I have gotten starts of a couple of other hardies from friends, so I was wondering if that is and individual cultivar trait or if it is common among most of them.

Me too! And just think, there are at least 1,000 varieties of named fuchsia's! Although I am not interested in hanging baskets, as those can't live long in those little containers.
To answer your question though, different varieties vary greatly in how easily they will root from cuttings. The hardier fuchsia's tend to root easier and faster. While with some, you are lucky if half of them survive.
One of my personal tricks to give cuttings in general (not just fuchsia's) a boost, is to mist them well and then keep them for 24 hours in a clear container. I buy the cheap $1 clear plastic shoe boxes from a dollar store and use those. If I can't plant the cuttings within 24 hours, I open the box at least twice a day to give them fresh air and quick new misting. This gets them starting on producing root buds before they get planted into the planting mix.
And yes, when hardy fuchsia's are planted deep with buried branches, they will spread and throw out new shoots you can dig up and relocate!

Dark Eyes has always been my favorite. I am definitely going to try this out this year. Thank you!!

Well, I'll have to go back and get one. The thing is, if I understand correctly, is that I will be practically burying the whole thing. I think they were in gal. pots. So, this year I'll just have the ends of the branches sticking up.

I just remember coming to Tacoma when I was 9 with my grandmother and one of her relatives had a beautiful fuschia outside her door. I remember that and that I thought the relative was mean. Oh, and going up to Mt. Rainier in the middle of summer in shorts and a sleeveless shirt and playing in the snow.

Hi PC! I would love to see a forum! I have a rather small collection of hardy fuchsias and are always looking for new varieties.

Hi Jan23, Even though you will be burying the stems of the base of the bush, those stems with nodes are also going to put out new roots, and your bush is going to take off and grow big fast. That is, depending on the variety. I have one huge bush that was just a cutting last year. And others that are only a third that size and were one gallon plants last year. Hopefully you will make new a better memories with your fuchsia's!!

Hi Azorina, great to see another join us! Once there are a good number of us, we can start a new thread in Daves Garden forum and ask for our own ;-) Your in zone 8a, you ought to be able to grow a good number of varieties. What are you growing so far?

Hey, where are all of the fuchsia's out there? We on the Pacific Northwest have the perfect climate for fuchsia's! Some friends of mine went to England last fall and said there were fuchsia's everywhere, they are really big on fuchsia's in Europe. You should see some of their websites on them!
Show us your fuchsia's here!
Here is a photo of Voodoo out in my backyard. This guy is out in the full on sun all day long and is in bloom almost all year round in zone 9. He isn't even in the ground, he is in a large container, but he has survived freezes that killed many of the other types of bushes in my yard.
My backyard is down below my kitchen, so I look down into my fuchsia garden while I am making coffee in the morning. What a nice way to start the day.

I just have a few hardy fuschias; 3 varieies of F. magellancia, Army Nurse, Double Otto, Santa Claus, Exoniensis, Lady Boothby, Chillerton Beauty, Display, and Versicolor. I have purchased two at a private plant sale labled "tree fuschia" both of which have become about 7 feet tall and flower earlier and any of the others. Of course my record keeping is lacking there may be some I have missed.

Hi Azorina, do you have any photos of them? Isn't the number of varieties just wonderful? Except for Magellanica, I don't have a single one of your varieties! I went to a website just the other day, to see what they had to offer, and to see if they had any of mine. They had allot, but only 10 of the ones I do. So I hope to be increasing my collection soon. And it is really so hard to decide just from descriptions and even the photos, when it is only the flowers and not the form the bush takes that is being shown. Like who would know, just by looking at a photo of Waltz Gigolo, that it grows into one of the large bushes, but is also compact with a dense covering of smaller than usual leaves. I'll post a photo as soon as it starts to bloom more. Since I use my collection as stock plants, they get cut allot.
Your "tree fuchsia's" intrigue me. There was one fuchsia I gave up on a few years back because it just kept growing and growing and growing, but never produced a single flower! It was taking up so much room and had nothing to show for it. Maybe it just needed time to grow up high enough and be of a certain age before it produced. Now I am wondering what it would have looked like........

The tree fuschias intrigue me as well. They both seem to resemble Magellanicas in flower. One is very pale whitish pink and the other has red sepal and purple carrolla. I will get pics as soon as they start blooming. Both are planted in shade with only 3-4 hours of sun. I will get pictures as soon as they are bloomig. (I talked to a member of our local Fuschia Sociaty and she was kidding with me saying in So. America they use this plant for firewood.)

Ha, ha, maybe she wasn't kidding! Since that is where fuchsia's come from ;-)
I know I could use the wood from my old Magellanica for kindling if I had to cut that much of it down again. I have had to cut some big branches off because it really would take up way too much room if I didn't. It is out in the full sun almost all day long and gets too big for it's own good. That was the first thing I planted when I moved here 10 years ago and my entire front and back yards were just bare clay slopes. Now, over 500 bags of composted steer manure later, it is a lush garden. But the Magellanica never got the soil under it worked down deep. So it has a limited root system. I'll be looking forward to your photos. I am about to ask a neighbor down the street if they will be willing to trade a one gallon Voodoo for some cuttings of a beatiful fuchsia they have had in their yard growing next to a chain link fence out in the full sun all day long for years now. I keep trying to find something like it in the local nurseries, but haven't been able to. Hmm, I should also take a photo of it!
That could be something a fuchsia forum would be really good for!! Helping all of us identify our mystery fuchsia's. I would love to have the time to just sit and make a list of all the known named varieties. And then feed them all in here as we gather photos of them all. Okay, I am dreaming...........................back to work here!

Hi PC, I have two of the old regular hardy fuchsias. One is in the shade and one is in the sun all day against a brick wall, and the sunny one does the best. The shady one died back this winter but the sunny one is all coming back except the ends. I also have a miniature hardy. The flowers are about 1/2 inch long. I lost the one in the small pot but the bigger pot came back from the roots. When I pruned it last fall I stuck several branches in the dirt and now have five coming up. They are only about an inch tall but growing like crazy.

Hi Willowwind2,
That is the kind of story we need more of here!
I especially love the fact that the one out in the sun is doing better than the one in the shade. Pedricks Corner has it's heart set on redirecting the gardeners mindset on fuchsia's as being, number one, just hanging baskets, and number two, needing to be in the shade!!!
And I often stuff broken branches right down into the pots when I am in a hurry and accidently break one. If it is a good size twig, the deeper you shove it down, the bigger and healthier the new plant that comes up will be!
I will be looking forward to you sharing photos of them when they are in bloom!
I hope everyone won't mind if I occasionally repeat myself. In my efforts to drum up interest in a Fuchsia forum, I am working on threads in three forums now. Hopefully it won't be long before we are all talking in the same forum ;-)
Here is a photo I took the other day of a row of my specimens that are all out in the full sun! The biggest one you see is the Duchess of Albany again.

PC I wish I had pics of my fushias to share from last year as that was the first year that they had really "come into their own". Unfortunately, it was a bad year for me, so photos were few and far between. Will have plenty to show this season though, and am really looking forward to seeing pics from others.

I have Azorina to blame for my first attempts at more than just my "old standard hardy fuchsia". She shared a couple of hers with my Mom, and I loved them. Then I got to see some of hers blooming in her yard, and I was hooked. I went crazy the following year at Fred Meyer's fuchsia sale, and bought a bunch of the little 50 cent ones just to use as annual accents. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that quite a few were still alive the following spring! In the meantime, I had picked up a couple of new hardies from the flower show, and just loved them.

One thing that I think a fuchsia forum would be great for would be as a resource for discovering new varieties that you like, and also finding a source to acquire them. You don't see very many available in the nurserys and garden centers that I frequent.

I think this is a picture of the mini. Sorry wrong picture.

This message was edited May 19, 2009 5:00 PM

Well here's a shot of the sunny one.

This one shows it's location better.

I agree Rarejem! We don't have any "Fred Meyers" where I live. Wow, 50 cent starts? Did they have name tags? Were there allot of varieties? Sometimes large nurseries will produe allot of a few varieties and then dump them on the market rather than move them up to larger containers. But they usually aren't the named varieties, they are usually generics. Like the one I named Abby Rose after my niece, ha, ha! I bought it years ago at Home Depot and it was a generic "Upright Fuchsia," no other name...... And it was cheap.
Now, I wish I knew the name of the fuchsia in Willowwind2's post. That is the kind of little beauty I love the most!
Yes, we need a forum to help each other identify these, don't we!!? ;-D

Hi Willowwind2, I love that fuchsia of yours! Like I mention above, this is one of the reasons we need a forum. So we can help each other identify our varieties which either came to us un-named, or we got a while back and lost the tags....;-)
And like Rarejem mentioned, so we can see varieties here that we might be interested in. I am certainly interested the one in your photo. I plan on getting some new varieties soon and will be on the look out for this one!

PC, The starts at Fred Meyer were tiny, but all were named. Almost all were the annual varieties designed for baskets, so that was the market that they were aimed at. They did have some uprights as well, but you really had to hunt for them.

I picked up two other hardies at a nursery a week and a half ago that I am very excited add to the garden. Added Dan's Brother and Hollydale. Hope I have pics this summer!

Hi Rarejem, I also hope that as we all increase our collections, that we also check to see if what we've added also needs to be added to the Plant Files here at DavesGarden. They have a good start here. But at least 3/4 of the varieties available are still missing. My friend is coming over again today with his camera. Which is much, much better than mine. To take more photos! And I am off to see if I can get a few more uprights for my collection.......I'll let everyone know what I find ;-)

I found one of the upright fuchsia's I have been looking for, Sundial!! It is a stunning double with both the sepals and corolla being red orange! I traded 15 one gallon Jerusalem Artichokes and got 14 more varieties for my collection :-)
I have found photos of most of them, but still have no idea what Iced Champagne, Scarlet O'Hara, and Seaforth are going to look like. I also didn't find a photo of White Gem, but I am assuming it will be a small white flower. I brought a want list of 80 varieties with me and found seven that were on the list, ha, ha! Like Minnesota, Hayward, Alice Kling, Billie Green, Coachman, and Hermiena. I really like the ones that have orange tones. Coachman will be one of those!
I wonder if there is a way to print out a list of all the fuchsia's currently listed here at DavesGarden......hmmmm, I am going to go check that out.
Fuchsia lovers unite!! Post your photos here!
Here is one of my all time old favorites and hardy named Vinegar Joe!

Sorry, no pictures from here.
To update you on the hardy fuschia I was going to get. I went back there and couldn't find them. Things were moved around and the 'girls' working there had no idea. anyway, I did see a few pots of what looked like fuschia to me. They had no idea and there weren't any tags. These were smaller than what I had seen before. The leaves are dark green and the midrib is even darker almost purplish. There is one set of small buds so far. These are in 4" pots or smaller. I missed out before,so I figured I better get this. Anyway, it is in the ground. I will keep you updated on its progress.
Vinegar Joe is very delicate looking.

No way! Vinegar Joe is a tough old bird! He's been around for decades and gets big. And he is covered with those delicate little flowers. Makes you wonder about the person who names him, doesn't it!

I would love to have a list of hardy fuchsias.

I meant the flowers looked delicate. ^_^