Tuesday 8 May 2012

Fuchsias and more fuchsias

It is now just over a year ago when I got completely addicted to fuchsias.  By the end of last summer I had 23 varieties and now I have 48.  I have started standard fuchsias and managed to keep them going through the winter by keeping them in the conservatory, which was unheated, but by leaving the doors open to the lounge on really cold days this lifted the temperature a little.   Basically they need to be kept above 4 degrees otherwise the stems die back.  I learnt this to my detrament with a couple that I kept down the greenhouse.  We had one very, very cold night of -15 degrees and whilst I had a little paraffin heater in the greenhouse it was not nearly big enough to cope with this very bad night and I was deeply disappointed when I went down the following morning to find that two standards and some fuchsias on the outside of the greenhouse had died.  We are still having cold weather in Surrey and it's MAY!  I am hoping it will warm up soon so I can put some bedding plants out shortly and get the fuchsias into the garden.
I have made up some pots of various fuchsias from cuttings I did in Feb/March.
Cuttings of Genii


Multi pot of unknown fuchsia (the labels fell off!)
Eight month old Standard of Checkerboard survived the winter

I have quite a few hanging pots on the go at the moment and am looking forward to seeing how they come out and look in the summer.

Fuchsia pots