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Heat Tolerant Fuchsias (American Fuchsia Society)
"Nasty-Weather-Plant"
Fuchsias don't like indoor climate at all as you might have understood. Especially hard times they have in central heated appartments. They might survive but they get straggly, they don't flower and thay are very prone to 'critters'. A balcony is a good place but out in the open is always the best, exposed to drizzle, fog and cool air. Fuchsias are real 'bad-weather-plants'. When you don't like to be out, they do. Unless it's a danger of frost of course. Don't bring your fuchsia indoor just because you are cold and don't want to go out. The fuchsia won't forgive you.
Fuchsias are surprisingly resistable to windy weather. Branches rarely break from wind alone but it's very common that the whole pot topples over and branches break. So anchor the pots or do as I do (if I'm at home at the right time) lay the pots down till the storm is over.
Standort auf Deutsch
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Potting upNever plant a fuchsia, plant or cutting, in as big a pot as you want the final plant to be in. Unfortunately you have to take the trouble to increase the size of the pot gradually.
A cutting should be placed in a pot not bigger than the size of a coffee cup and as soon as roots are reaching the edges of that pot you pot up to a slightly bigger pot. Carefully knock out the rootball to check for roots. Try to keep the rootball as intact as possible and fill the gap in the bigger pot with compost - don't press!
This increase of pot-size might have to be pursued 5-6 times the first season. It pays off. Depending on which cultivar you are handling at the moment the size of the final pot the first year could vary from 15-20 cm to a pot the size of a bucket.
Around Midsummer you should stop the potting up and leave the fuchsia to flower. The pot also has to be well filled with roots for the winter storage, when soggy compost in the pot would cause root rot.
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RepottingThe repotting in March-April (here in Sweden, USDA zone 5-6) is a totally different thing from potting up. After the winter rest you remove about half the old compost or more and replace it with fresh, light porous compost. If you have stored your plants very cold (+2-3C / 35F) they haven't grown during winter. You then repot some time in March-April when it gets warmer. Use a slightly smaller pot than the previus one if possible. Long roots can be pruned off. See to that the compost drizzels down between the roots, water very sparingly, place the plant in a warm, light, humid spot. Spraying the bark is now important to soften it to enable the new shoots to break through. Watering has to be very restricted, since the soil isn't yet filled with roots. You can enclose the whole plant in a transparent plastic bag (mini-green-house).
This is the time of the year when most fuchsias are killed. They get too much water right after repotting. The thick, brown main roots can not absorbe any water at all and they will rot if overwatered.Click HERE to see pictures of how to repot etc.
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"Standard -Fuchsia tree"
The "standard" form can be grown as follows: Start with a new plant or cutting having a single upright shoot. Allow the cutting to grow - support with a stake of the desired height. (Strips of pantyhose material make good elastic ties.) When the desired height is reached, pinch off the top of the plant, forcing new lateral growth. Continue pinching the lateral growth at the leaf nodes which will result in additional branching. When enough greenery has formed in the "head" to nourish the plant, strip the leaves (and any unwanted laterals) from the trunk. A formed wire "hat"which fits on the top of a 1" stake may be available from your nursery; this will give the branches additional support.
For additional information, you may want to contact the Northwest Fuchsia
> Society, P.O. Box 22071, Bitter Lake Station, Seattle, WA 98133-0071
>
> HTH
> Kent Walker[To see some pictures of Fuchsia Standards click HERE or/and HERE]
Drainage
In the bottoms of the pots you need a thick layer of very coarse sand, pebbles or crocks. Drainaged pots are essential to successful fuchsia growing.
Also remember not to press the soil when you pot or repot. Porous soil is as important as good drainage.
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Is the plant alive?
During dormancy the plant may look rather dead. They have no leaves and show no sign of life. To check out if the plant is alive, you just scratch the bark carefully with your nail and if the tissue under the bark is green the plant is alive. If the bark doesn't come off and the branch has a dry appearence the branch is dead. But do NOT discard the plant until you have checked the branches all the way down to soil level. Since fuchsias can stand, or even prefer severe pruning, you can easily get a plant going even if there is only an inch at the bottom of the palnt that's still alive. Remove most of the dead branches and wait until you see where new shoots appear, and then prune a second time.
Saving a dying plant
One sign of the fact that you are about to kill a plant by drowning it is that the leaves turn limp, stay green but shrivel. When the leaves go limp and soft you think it's because of lack of water. Just as many plants, if not more, are killed by too much water as by too little. If this happens to a plant of yours be sure to see to that it IS lack of water and not drowning. Take out the rootball from the pot and check the moisture. If you can't see any white 'suckers' the plant is probably about to die from too much water (poor drainage / too compact soil) Remove the old, now rotten, soil and transplant in porous, well drained soil (don't press). Water gently, and put the plant in a humid, warm location. No sun at all. Don't water for a week or so. In this way you might be able to save a drowning fellow.
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Size of Plants
The size of a plant is depending on the cultivar you grow and not so much on how you care for it. You can't really force a slow growing cultivar like Countess of Aberdeen or Eleanor Leytham to grow big quickly. On the other hand the strong growers like Cardinal and Barbara will be like Christmas trees in a season or two with ordinary care. Even the winter hardy, small-flowered magellanicas, Margaret, Margaret Brown and Preston Guild are strong growers.
Pots
Clay pots are always the best and most beatyful to grow fuchsias in but plastic pots have some advantages too. They keep moisture better, sometimes too well, and they are cheaper and easier to handle. Fuchsia s aren't fussy about this so you choose.
Just remember NOT to use BLACK plastic pots if the pot ever gets a glimpse of direct sun. The black plastic heats up in seconds and the roots will boil to death in the pot.
Never put the pot on a saucer or in an outer pot if the fuchsia is out in the open air. After rain the saucer will fill with water and drown the roots. It doesn't help to say "I empty the saucer every day" because you don't. You just say you do. After one day in such a swamp the fuchsia might be dead. OK?
UpFertilizing - Feeding
The easiest way and the most 'sure-to-be-done' way of feeding fuchsias is putting some SLOW-release fertilizer on top of the pot soil. Just mulch it into the top soil and the plant will be fed every time you water it. Bonemeal and such is slowly dissolving. About once a month you add a table spoon or two. Having to mix liquid fertilizer in your watering can is not what you get around to when you come home from work and the plants are thirsty. You dash off to water them - usually without nutritions in the water.
If you don't feed fuchsias - often and with weak solutions - the flowering declines and you get disappointed.
It doesn't matter what kind of fertilizer you use as long as it is balanced. You can make feeding plants very complicated by changing from this brand name fertilizer to that brand, but fuchsias are not fussy about this. It's more important they are fed than what kind of food you use.
Düngung auf Deutsch
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Watering Fuchsias
For a POTTED fuchsia to be watered through rain alone it takes a couple of days of continous raining, so you have to water even if it is raining, running the risk of being considered crazy. The foliage of the palnt acts as an umbrella.
During hot, dry days, the plants appear to need water because the roots can't keep up with the evaporation, but be careful. It's easy to drown a plant during these hot spells. Move the plant to a cooler place, if possible, and give it a shower. Await the cool evening and if the foliage doesn't perk up in the cool evening it might need watering. The higher the temperature the drier the air, usually, and it's the dry air taht fuchsias don't like. Not necessarily the high temperatures.
Just as much as fuchsias hate waterlogged, soggy soil, they hate drying out. They will loose buds and even after one dry-out or one day of standing with their feet in water (not moisture). If the drainage is good and the soil not too compact you can't drown a fuchsia. You might have to - and you can - water fully rooted plants several times a day if drainage and soil are correct.
Giessen auf Deutsch
Fraser Ross from Scotland sent me some info on watering
What are some of the San Jose Branch's favorite fuchsias?
(The ones with * are also spread among fuchsiasts in Sweden)
Twenty-eight people answered the poll question: If you were limited to three fuchsias to grow, which would they be? Here they are, and the number of times they were mentioned are in parentheses:Checkerboard (8) *
Display (5) *
Swingtime (5) *
Countess of Aberdeen (4) *
Gartenmeister Bonstedt (4) *
Marinka (3) *
Deep Purple (3)
Machu Picchu (3)
Thymifolia (2)
Tinker Bell (2)
Southgate (2) *
Daisy Bell (2)
The following were mentioned once:
Beverly Hills, Eternal Flame, Lord Byron, Black Prince *, Fanfare, F.magellanica *, Black Velvet,
First Lady, Ovation, Blush of Dawn *, Gay Fandango *, Orange Drops *, Bonanza, Golden Marinka, Purple Rain, Cardinal *, Jack Shahan, Red Spider *, Caroline, Lena *, San Pascual, Christmas Elf, Leverküsen, Cindy Robbins, Lisa
(From The American Fuchsia Society's Home Page, see Links)
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Some snips from fuchsia discussions I've had in the newsgroup rec.garden about Fuchsia Growing
HEAT TOLERANT FUCHSIAS
with Courtesy The American Fuchsia Society
A Longer List (Hundreds of Heat Tolerant Cultivars)
* = available in Sweden
Which fuchsias are considered to be heat tolerant?
In general, the orange or red fuchsias are more heat tolerant than the white or blue ones. The following are some of the most popular heat tolerant fuchsias:
[For me and for Jim, our definition of heat-tolerant means: able to withstand repeated lengthy hot, sunny afternoons with scant or no shade in summer with temperatures into the upper 80s and occasionally into low 90s (Farenheit) in our back- and front-yards in Menlo Park, CA. We have direct experience with California, Golden Gate, Cardinal and Magellanica aurea -- and very good
results. In addition, in our neighborhood, there are many plants of Constance grown in fairly direct sun.
Kathryn_Lewark@BayNetworks.COM (Kathryn Lewark)]
Autumnale
Daisy Bell
Orange Drops
Cardinal *
Gartenmeister Bonsedt *
Many species*
Checkerboard *
Machu Picchu
Billy Green*
First Love
Santa Cruz
Chang*
Jingle Bells
Southgate*
Countess of Aberdeen*
Mrs. J. D. Fredericks
Swingtime*
Erecta Novelty = Bon Accord *
Randy
Tom West
Eternal Flame
Sacramento Bells
Winston Churchill *
From: Kathryn_Lewark@BayNetworks.COM (Kathryn Lewark)
Subject: Fwd: Re: More heat-tolerant fuchsias
Date: 18 Apr 1996
>Buttercup
>California
>Southgate *
>Golden Gate
>f. magellanica aurea *
Kenneth's comments: The magellanicas are, apart from being winter/frost hardy (på svenska) also very heat tolerant, especially if planted in the border but also in pots.
Gartenmeister Bonstedt mentined above belongs to a section of fuchsias called Triphylla Hybrids and they are all more heat tolerant than 'normal' fuchsias. Even in winter care (på svenska) higher temperatures are needed for the Triphyllas.
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