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

My Bought Bonsai Trees

Chinese Bird Plum

Chinese Elm

Papercrete Bonsai Training Pots

I decided to try my hand at making some training pots for some of bonsai trees and recently heard of papercrete which is a mixture of cement and paper. The first mixture I made was not as successful as I would have liked because I did a mix of 60% paper, 20% cement and 20% sand.  The pot turned out a little crumbly so I decided to change the mix to 50% cement and 50% paper.

I got some newspapers and ripped them up and put them in a bowl with some hot water.  Left it to soak for 24 hours and then stirred and beat the mixture with a carving fork until it resembled pulp.

Paper mixed with water

I then took equal portions of the pulp and cement and beat this with the fork until it looked like this:-

Then I put it into this:-

Microwave bowl

I added a rectangular piece of styrofoam to the middle of the pot which enabled me to form the legs of the pot. I pressed the mix down into the corners and bottom of the pot first and then built up the sides.

After a couple of days it was ready to be turned out and left to dry.  I then sanded the edges smooth and sealed with concrete sealant and when that was dry painted it with a stone paint. This is the finished pot:-

I put a little fuchsia cutting in the pot basically just to see what it looks like.  It is a very cheap way of getting a bonsai shaped pot.

Pot No. 2

Another pot

We have had a week of beautiful weather with temperatures up to 29 degrees in September which is definitely unusual for the UK.  I have had a couple of weeks of pain with my back which has stopped me doing a lot.  I don't know where the summer has gone though.  Everyone is saying that it has gone so quickly and other than the last week's hot weather and a hot spell at the end of April we haven't had much barbeque weather at all.  So much to do in the garden at the moment cutting down and preparing the fuchsias for overwintering.  I have bubblewrapped my greenhouse and will be cleaning it down with Jeyes fluid.

This is my favourite fuchsia so far - New Millenium.  There is only one plant in this basket.

New Millenium basket