8th October, 2012

Have been cutting down my fuchsias ready for storing in the greenhouse.  Any hardy ones planted in the garden will be left as they are and cut down in the spring.  I wanted to show you the little multi-pot of fuchsias that I started back in March with 4 unknown cuttings.  They were very small plants and in my blog of the 9th July I was quite surprised how much they had grown but as I didn't know the names of the fuchsias I decided to put them in a big pot and let them do their own thing and not to pinch out again.

This was them in March 2012 when they were first planted.........

And this is them 9th July...........

And this is them now on the 8th October, 2012......

They are just about coming to the end of flowering now.  It turned out that the four unknown cuttings were  one Royal Velvet, two La Campanella and one Eva Boerg.  Such large plants in seven months.

31st July 2012 - Some of the fuchsias

The giant Bella Rosella fuchsia added to a basket of mixed lobelia.

New one to me this year - Pink Galore

La Campanella

New one this year ..... Ernie

Eva Boerg after the rain.

31st July 2012 Chickens

The one on the right is starting a moult

Here is a close up of the one that is moulting.

Just thought I would show you how the chickens are doing at the moment/

13th July update on basket fuchsias

This is how they are doing now.

 

3 large New Millenium and 1 Jack Shahan

One of these got capsid bug and I was very disappointed.  I removed the ruined leaves and sprayed all the plants.

9th July 2012 - Update on fuchsias

Can you believe this weather.  Here in the south east of England we have had rain, rain and more rain and when the sun does come out we all rush into our gardens to try and get a little bit done.  The grass is growing like mad and the slugs are out in force.  But now for the fuchsias.  The hanging baskets I am doing for the middle of August are coming along nicely and hopefully I have timed them right.  In Surrey the British Fuchsia Society has warned that there is Fuchsia Gall Mite in Bagshot so I will not be buying any more fuchsias for the time being and hopefully this dreaded fuchsia pest will not reach me. Fingers crossed.

I have two pots of Genii fuchsias and have been trying to get them into a nice rounded shape.  They have had two pinches so far.

Sadly, I dropped another Genii pot and it landed flowers down and they were broken into pieces but at least I have these two.

Also I thought I would show you the multi pot of unknown fuchsias that I talked about earlier in the blog and that I made up in March.  I am very pleased with how they are coming along.  They grew so big in the pot that I decided to put them in a large container in the front of the house.  All the flower buds are on them and I'm just waiting for them to burst into colour.
This is it.

Multi pot

Multi pot of unknown fuchsias now in new container

 And to think it started like this:-

Multi pot started in March

3rd June 2012

Fuchsias are coming along nicely and I need to have them flowering for the middle of August for a family occasion so the doubles have had their last pinch on 30th May and will be allowed to just grow on now.  My favourite is still New Millenium - I just love the colours.

Baskets of New Millenium.

 

 

 Also tubs of Carmel Blue and Jack Shahan both singles so they will have their last pinch about the 19th June.

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