Fuchsias from Dick

Wow He's a lovely friend to have, they are all fabulous aren't they....

You have a good friend there and what beauties he has given you.

Fantastic flowers and plants, Balcony. Very kind of Dick to give you those. He knows they are safe in your hands !

Thank you all & they certainly will be in good hands - I hope! Though I seem to be losing a bit of my edge as a gardener as I've managed to kill a few plants already this year - one was a dwarf Hebe Dick gave me some months earlier! I removed its remains from the pot this morning! I think I must have overwatered it! Shame because it was a nice plant & I would have liked to have kept it for a few more years!

Dick certainly is a very kind man - he's in his early 90s but you wouldn't think he's a day over 70!

Very kind of your friend to give you the fuchsias. They are nice ones.
I like the Marguerite, so full of flowers :)

What marvellous gifts! I specially like the first fuchsia.

Well I'm sorry to say that t5he first one is almost on its last legs! It doesn't seem to have recovered very well from being taken out of the big clay pot & being put in a big plastic pot! I tried not to disturb the roots too much but with such big rootballs it's very difficult. Besides the roots hadn't even filled half the original pot when I had to repot it.

It hasn't helped to have such high temps lately either. Fuchsias much prefer cooler temps & not the 30C we have had for several days here.

In a last ditch attempt to save it I pruned all the branches back to just one pair of leaves, (3/4 dead anyway!) I hope that doesn't end up killing it.

That's so disappointing. Did you use any of the cut off shoots to try to use as cuttings? Just out if interest, why did you transfer it to the other pot?

I'm sorry to hear about your plants. Fuchsias don't like hot weather, and in a plastic pot the roots may have become overheated. I hope they'll survive and regrow for you.

Stera, I had to change them from clay pots to plastic ones as Dick's daughter wanted them back! I couldn't use any of the shoots for cuttings as they had all dried up! That was the reason for cutting it back so drastically!

I know very well from trying to grow them in Spain that they don't like hot weather, Hywel! As for the roots getting too hot, well there were other pots in front of the Fuchsias that shaded them a bit & they were also as far inside the balcony as they could possibly be - short of putting them in our living room! (Our living room was extremely hot anyway - we never came down from 27C till today & it still says 24C!