Standard Fuchsia Beacon on balcony 2009-07-06

nice standard Balcony -I am having a try at one :-)

They are very easy to grow Richard. Tie the stem to a cane but make sure the leaves remain on the stem as these feed the plant. Just keep the side shoots pinched back to a couple of leaves.

You pinch out the growing tip a few pairs of leaves above the desired height, so that you get a few branches, then you pinch out the growing tip of these side shoots after they have made a few pairs of leaves.

If you see any flower buds developing you should pinch them outl. You want your plant to direct its energies, during this, their formative year, into vegetative growth. Next year, & for many years thereafter, you can enjoy the flowers.

Many people suggest that the best standards are made from cuttings with 3 pairs of leaves instead of the usual 2 pairs. This is so that the produce more branches later when you start to form the head. It doesn't really matter really matter as I've made standards with 2 & 3 pairs of leaves & the end result is no different.

When you feed the plant you want to use nitrogen rich fertilizer rather than a potash rich one. What you are interested in this year is growth not flowers.

I've started off a new one this year, but I really want to make one using a cutting from Swingtime. I have to wait till the original plant in my basket flowers so that I can identify it first!

Thanks for the advice Balcony I will be having a go at that an.d feeding it with the nitrogen rich fertilizer.

How high are you thinking of growing your standard? If it is only going to be about 2ft high you can probably let some flowers grow on it this year. As you can imagine growing a 3 ft high stem, like on mine needs a whole summer of growth!

Not sure yet how tall to grow it Balcony. When I was a member of the Leicester Fuchsia Society there were recognised classifications for full, half, quarter standards. Here is a link to the info if you want to see it (this is the Bolton one but they are all the same):-
http://www.salfordboltonfuchsiasociety.co.uk/show/definition.htm

Thanks very much for the link, Richard. I went along to have a look & it seems my standards would fall into the Full Standard category. The size I asked you about yesterday seems to fall into the half Standard category.

I thought you would be interested to know the official categories Balcony. The full standards need to grow over the winter period too. Are there difficulties in keeping the fuchsias in green leaf over the winter?

If you can provide them a frost proof place with good lighting there is no reason why they should hibernate for the winter. Obviously you will notice little growth, but then you don't want it to grow much over the winter otherwise you could end up with a very thin, drawn out stem which won't be able to support the weight of the flowers + the head during the summer.

I think it's more a process of getting off to a much quicker start the following spring. I never lost a 3ft standard over the winters & all I had to keep them alive was a cold, unheated bedroom.

My present standard Beacons spend all the winter outside & begin to flower in March! Even this last winter they spent in the same place as every other winter of their lives & still started to flower end of March! As I hadn't cut back last year's growth I did it in mid-April & had to lose the flowers. :-( Now they have dozens of buds & many open flowers. There have been open flowers for the last 2 or 3 weeks!

I grew two smaller standards (about half standards) with Lye's unique in the past Balcony. One of them toppled over and about half the head broke off. It didn't look that good but it lasted for about two more years. The other one was OK at first but the following year it didn't flower on the head but sprouted at its base and the head was bare so I must have done something wrong. I sprayed the head with warm water too as that is what I was told to do but it didn't flower properly again after the first time.

The head is more frost sensitive so it may have got frosted. That might explain why it sprouted again from the base instead of the head.

Thanks Balcony next time I will cover it in fleece in the winter if I keep it outside or in the GH. :-)

Good idea! Though it make also depend on the variety, whether it is really hardy or perhaps borderline. I suppose I'm quite lucky with mine. I don't know if Beacon is hardy or not. I didn't discover its name till I put a question up & a couple of people gave me possible answers.

I never leave my Fuchsias where they may get frosted during the winter as I always thought they were all greenhouse perennials. Even though I passed several gardens that always left their Fuchsias outside all winter going to & from work for 5 years I never thought they were perennials, the idea never occurred to me!

I shall have to look Fuchsia Beacon up on the internet & see if I can find out if it is hardy.

Beacon is a hardy one Balcony :-)
http://www.roualeynfuchsias.co.uk/hardy_fuchsias.php

Thanks very much for the link, Richard.

I see Dollar Princess is on the hardy list, one or two of my plants have begun flowering.

I've not got any flowers on my fuchsias yet Balcony I'll take some pics when they flower to show you.

I´ll be looking forward to seeing them.

I did take a couple of my two Beacon standards last week / one of Dollar Princess. The Dollar Princess one I deleted after seeing it "seeing it" is a misnomer as it turned out far too dark against the bright sky! The couple of flowers were on the inside of the balcony so therefore the basket came out almost black against the brilliant sunshine & blue sky outside the balcony. The two of Beacon came out reasonably well. I'll upload them to my photos, though there isn't really much to see at present. There are however lots & lots of buds on both plants.

Your Beacon standards sound like they will be very colourful when all your buds come out Balcony.
Do you feed them with anything ? I used to water mine with a weak solution of tomato feed and they used to be OK with that.

I water them frequently & every week I give them a feed with tomato fertilizer but at the strength on the bottle. I don't weaken it - it's something that has never occurred to me to do. But I won't do it until I start feeding the tomatoes in late July probably.