Fuchsias from Dick
By balcony
10 comments
Fuchsias from Dick
My friend Dick from church has given me 4 big pots of Fuchsias over the last few weeks as well as two standard Marguerites!
His daughter gives them to him but he says he just doesn’t have the room for so many big plants in his tiny garden! The day he gave me the Marguerite standards I went with him to his house. He really does have a tiny garden!
Actually you can’t really call it a “garden” as it more like a border that runs around the four walls of his bungalow!
He lives in a retirement flat that is a converted out-patients unit. The old hospital here in Huntingdon was closed down many years ago & a new one was built. After being closed for a number of years it was converted into a retirement facility with an enormous extension being built onto the old hospital.
In the grounds stood several out-patients units. These have been converted into single residencies/retirement bungalows. Some are joined together & some are individual bungalows. Dick has a tiny garden, no bigger than my balcony at the back of his bungalow but there are no walls or fences that separate him from the street really, in fact anybody could walk into his “garden” at any time. Fortunately this doesn’t seem to happen or he hasn’t mentioned anything to me at least.
Here are some photos of the Fuchsias he has given me:
Here they are still in their original clay pots:
Here they have been repotted into big plastic pots:
These are close up photos of the 2nd two plants he gave me – these were without pots & I had to repot them the day after he gave me them:
Here are the last two Dick gave me (in the bath!):
As he had removed them from their clay pots, which his daughter wanted back, he put them in plastic carrier bags to bring them up to me! I didn’t have enough compost to pot them up so they had to spend a day in the bath! The next day I went downtown & bought a couple of bags of fresh compost.
Marguerites:
Before I finish I want to show you the 2 standard Marguerites he also gave me:
In direct sunlight these flowers almost burn your eyes out – they are so brilliant!
My sincere & grateful thanks go to Dick for his generosity!
- 13 Jun, 2017
- 8 likes
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Comments
You have a good friend there and what beauties he has given you.
13 Jun, 2017
Fantastic flowers and plants, Balcony. Very kind of Dick to give you those. He knows they are safe in your hands !
14 Jun, 2017
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!
14 Jun, 2017
Very kind of your friend to give you the fuchsias. They are nice ones.
I like the Marguerite, so full of flowers :)
14 Jun, 2017
What marvellous gifts! I specially like the first fuchsia.
14 Jun, 2017
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.
20 Jun, 2017
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?
20 Jun, 2017
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.
21 Jun, 2017
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!
23 Jun, 2017
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Wow He's a lovely friend to have, they are all fabulous aren't they....
13 Jun, 2017