Gardening Tips

Spring Plants - Colourful Fuchsias

In this issue of The Quorndon I would like to write about fuchsias, because with a little care and attention you will have a beautiful display of colour throughout the season. Fuchsias come in many forms from the elegant standards, suitable for pots and beds, to the cascading varieties for hanging baskets, to dwarf bedding plants, to hardy and half hardy bushes that look so attractive in any flower bed. Many of the fuchsias are grown for their attractive, long lasting, flowers that cascade over their delicate foliage. But it is worth remembering that some fuchsias can be grown for their foliage alone.

There are many varieties of fuchsias to choose from, but 1997 saw the launch of California Dreamers, a selection of six new varieties with bolder colours and a much larger flower head. For your displays in 1998 you might like to consider trying these new plants.

With probably the mildest weather for a long time it has been easier to protect our precious and somewhat unusual varieties through what could have normally been a difficult time. So as the day lengthens and the temperature rises we can start to prepare for our mature bushes.

Start by taking the fuchsias out of their pots and knock off all of the previous year's compost
Repot using a new or treated container with a peat based compost known as 'multi-purpose'. I personally prefer multi-purpose because it has more air in it than soil based compost. Choose also a low nutrient grade as this will help to give the roots a good start and then water in.

Try at this stage to keep the soil moist because if the compost is allowed to get too wet it increases the risk of pythium, a soil base disease, and ventilate throughout the day wherever possible to keep condensation down, a cold humid atmosphere will cause botrytis and stem rot.
Cut back bush and trailing fuchsias in the same way: three or maybe four shoots from the base enable a stronger structure.

I like to pinch out twice but remember after pinching out single flowered varieties they will not flower for 10 weeks and 12 weeks for double varieties.

Fuchsias do benefit from being potted on but only to the next size pot. If the pot is too large this may result in the plant sitting dormant on the new compost. Spray for white and green fly and avoid fuchsia rust, as badly effected plants must be destroyed.

by Paul Orton, Loughborough Road Nursery