FUCHSIAS are fashionable again . . . And about time, too!, In fact I find it difficult to understand why the popularity of these plants waned, because they’re cheap to buy, easy to grow, yet flower for months. There are trailing varieties ideal for window-boxes, hanging baskets and wall containers, and upright kinds you can train into neat bushes in a matter of weeks for pot plants, bedding displays or to put in tubs and urns to decorate a patio or terrace.
The easiest way to start is to buy a collection from a nurseryman early in the year. The plants you receive will be rooted cuttings. Set them individually in small pots and, when they’re large enough, pinch out their tips to leave four pairs of leaves on each plant.
A shoot will quickly grow from the stem where each leaf joins it and these should be pinched back to leave three pairs of leaves. Move the plants into 5in. Pots when the small ones are full of roots. Apart from watering and feeding the plants weekly throughout summer, and supporting the stems, that is all you need to do to make superb pot plants or train fuchsias for bedding out or setting in tubs.
To make a standard with a head of branches at the top of a tall stem, let a plant grow upwards, tie it to a cane, and remove all the side shoots – not the leaves – from the stem until it is 18—36in. Tall. Then pinch out the top and treat the shoots that then form as though it were a bush, twice pinching them back to 3-4 pairs of leaves.
Fuchsias can be trained as espaliers, pyramids and other shapes as well, or you can simply have a marvellous display of the different varieties by growing them as bushes. Either way, fuchsias are sure to beautify your home and garden and be as enchanting as a tree with fairy lights a-dance.