bird seed and fuchsia

Swingtime is a great fuchsia . It is good in hanging baskets and in pots aswell.

My uncle grew one as a standard Hywel it was very impressive and that is what I am going to attempt :-)

Your Niger seed was a whole lot cheaper than mine : o ( ( (

well done richard you will love the swingtime i had it in summer hanging baskets last year which you can see in my pics when you get chance to view through, they are beautifull ;o))

I thought it was a good buy Shirley when I saw it :-)
Yes I will take a look Sandra :-) Thanks

Ah richard go back and get me some lol I cant get Niger seeds without seeding off for them mail order, The fuchsia's look so healthy bargains or what; Hope I havent lost my fuchsia's, jammy dogger.

Yes they do look healthy plants Great I usually stock up with things when I go to Wilko's they have a huge store here in Leicester :-)

You got some bargains there love the fuchsia very pretty will look forward to seeing your standard.

It will take two years to grow a full standard Sixpence, but 1/2 or 1/4 standard will be quicker -so I will need some patience :-)

Yes but think of the joy at the end of it. Don't forget to take a picture for us all to see, it would be interesting to see it in stages, just a thought. :O )

Me thinks I'll look in at Wilkos, Swingtime is one of my favourites and I recon they were cheap. The seed will be going cheep too!!

Haha Heron. We don't have a wilkinson's round here groan

Hi Rich u did well in Wikisons buying all these bargains :) I love that shop it is so resonably priced :)

Good purchases Richard :o)

Thanks sixpence I will take some pics.:-)
Heron, Great, -Without wanting to sound like an advert -- Wilkos are on line too.. lol :-)
I get a lot of things there too Jacque:-)
Thanks Terra -I like a bargain....lol :-)

I get my bird food from wilkos, nice fuchsias

I will look forward to seeing it grow.

Thanks Clarice -I get loads from there!
I will keep you posted on it sixpence-I have put a few of them in some hanging baskets today but keeping one back for taking cuttings from to start off my 'standard' :-)

I bet your baskets will look great good luck with the standard.

Thanks sixpence :-)

Nice blog, Richard! :-)

I got a Fuchsia Swingtime last year & it flowered very well all summer in the hanging basket. It has probably survived the winter in its basket along with its companions. I say probably because in all five baskets from last year 4 plants have survived but in all five baskets Thalia seems to have died - my only casualty, but 5 plants!

Like you I was planning on making a Swingtime standard to go with my two Beacon Fuchsia standards. But I don't know which basket it's in! They were still in flower when we left for Spain in December but 2 weeks later they were all killed off to the soil. I put them under a table in the most sheltered corner of the balcony, after cutting them back by 50%, & covered them with newspapers. Now I don't know what is in the baskets! I will have to wait to see the first flowers before I can take cutting of Swingtime.

Thanks Balcony -I have done that so many times. I now label everything. I make plant labels from cut up strips of plastic milk bottles and write on them with indelible marker pen now. I find them better than boughten plant labels as they are too small! Hope your plants have survived. I think I have lost about 2/3 of my strawberry plants which were in the strawberry tower.

It's a shame that you lost so many Strawberry plants over the winter, Richard, hope the remaining plants fruit alright for you.

I spent more than an hour & a half this afternoon trying to clean out Gerry's Strawberry bed on the allotment. It was hard work & a great deal of the time I was on my hands & knees! The only way to get out the bindweed & Dandelions!

Later I gave them a good soaking!

I bought a 'kneeler' have you seen them balcony they are comfortable to kneel on and easy to get back up with.
I had a few strawberry plants in a plastic bucket that survived the winter so this afternoon I planted them in the top of the strawberry tower. When they produce runners I will poke them in the empty holes! :-)
Have you seen the 'weeders' they are a pole with a thread on the end and you screw them into the weed, dandelion etc and they extract the weed, roots as well when you tug them out :-)

No I haven't but they would be much good for bindweed, I don't think. They might be good for deep taproot plants like Dandelion though.

I think you are right Balcony :-)