Fuchsias Part2

Always nice to see what other Fuchsias people are growing you have a nice collection.
I do find so many cultivars that look the same one worth trying if you haven’t got it is Shelford a mass of flowers and keeps flowering.

What a selection Stera - they are beautiful - lovely pictures - Garden News and Snowcap are very smart - I don't know much about fuschias - except we have a white one and a variegated one both are hardy and look good in the borders

They are lovely, Sue. I've never managed to keep Winston Churchill from one year to the next, so you're doing well. But my Black Beauty is prolific :)

What a wonderful collection you have got. It has inspired me to look at getting more next year. My one and only snowcap is finally in flower. Hopefully following your advise you gave me I might even be able to get it through the winter :-)

Thank you everybody. Sheila I think Winston Churchill only survived because the winter was so mild. Might dig it up and bring it in this winter but I am trying not to turn the conservatory into a greenhouse to the extent that there is no room for two chairs and a little table...

I've looked up Shelford and Black Beauty (thank you Peter and Sheila) - what a contrast with each other and both so lovely in their own way. I have New Millennium, which is quite similar to Black beauty.

Its so hard to stop buying more but I already have seven to plant out - dithering about whether to keep them inside over the winter until they get bigger, but still not sure where they are going to go! I was planning to put several in one bed but find they look a lot better mixed with other plantings.

Jen you should overwinter Snowcap easily. If you are worried you can always cover it with dry bracken or something but mine survived a night of minus 10 a few years ago.
Jane its easy to get hooked. Just look at Potash Nursery's hardy collection and tell me if you can resist!

Beautiful aren't they.
I'm pleased to see Delta's Sarah. I had forgotten about it ...

I wonder if the second one you don't know is Fuchsia glazoviana ?

Never heard of that one so just looked it up. I don't think that's it - its prettier than mine with those lovely long stamens. Thank you for the suggestion though.' I'll just check tomorrow when its daylight and hopefully not raining...

Oh just beautiful all of them. I absolutely love fuchsias and have quite a few now but lost the labels long ago so no idea what they are except for my lovely Hawkshead. Do you keep them all in pots? I have one called Mrs Popple (I think) which seems to look after itself and comes back every year, but it is just planted in the border.

Mrs Popple is definitely a perennial fuchsia, Ginelle . . . they're usually the ones with smaller flowers.

Ginellie They are all hardy and in the ground except two.Those two are in containers, and so are my seven new ones as they are still a bit small for overwintering and I might keep them inside - haven't decided yet but they need to be planted out soon if its going to happen...I think Mrs Popple is the hardiest of the larger flowered ones but in Surrey all the hardy ones should be OK in the ground.
Do you keep Hawkshead in pot? It can get very big.

Sheila some of the hardy ones these days have lovely big flower look at my Lena and Dollar Princess (she was in the first blog)

You're right Sue . . . again, lol!

Now I feel bad Sheila...didn't do it on purpose!

Lovely plants again, Sue! I love Fuchsias & I get some every few years. I only seemed to be able to keep one variety, Beacon, I think. I had 3 standards of my own making on the balcony for at least 5 or 6 years. I had the heads of two of them starting a metre (3ft) from the pot so they had room to expand outwards & gave me some room to move on the balcony! Others have died after only a year or two.

Both your blogs have gone into my favourites. :-))

Beacon was my favourite for a time. Afraid I'm not very loyal and favourites tend to change from year to year...
I've only ever made one standard and sadly used an unsuitable variety - I gave it away in the end as I didn't have room to overwinter it. You did well to keep yours on the balcony over the winter.

Sue - don't ever feel 'bad' for telling me something I didn't know. I'm only teasing, and actually grateful :)

Lol again Sheila!

Hywel I've had a look and think you might well be right -thank you!

You have some lovely Fuchsias Sue ... I had to support my two Lady Boothby ones today as they have grown so tall and are flopping forward.

Glad to have been of help :)

I took a cutting of my Lady Boothby fuchsia today as I noticed a branch almost 30cm long (+/-12in) had been broken off by the strong winds we have had of late & was completely dried up! I found a branching stem that had had its tip burned out by the winds some time ago & had made 3 shoots. I took it & put it in a small pot in the small greenhouse on the balcony. I hope it will root as the last time I took cuttings of this fuchsia none of them rooted.

Did you put a plastic bag over it to conserve the moisture? It helps.

Before we went away to Spain, to be with my mother-in-law, I took several cutting of other Fuchsias & but them in our kitchen & put the pot inside a plastic bag hoping they might be rooted by the time we got back 3 weeks later but no, they had dried up completely! :-((

I very rarely put cuttings in plastic bags as they usually die on me. Most of my cutting are in the open air but usually I have more than a 50% take on them! Neither do I use rooting powder. When I went to Spain in the early 70s I couldn't find it so did all my cutting without using it & in the 16 years since we returned I've never used it either!

Ah well, it happens. My latest one dried up too and I wasn't even away... I know some people have said they don't think rooting powder makes much difference for green cuttings. I haven't used it for a long time. I don't take a lot of cuttings these days because accommodating extra plants would mean digging out new bed...

Some of my cutting have taken while others have just dried up. ;-(( It's a bit of a lottery really - or swings & roundabouts! LOL! Sometimes no matter what you do they just won't root other times they sprout roots almost as soon as you put them in a pot to root, or so it seems!