Fuchsia appreciation thread?

[AJL]

rorror Are you in Netherlands? there are planty of Fuchsia nurseries in UK!

 

[Clorgan]

@AJL Nice tree's! Will start to look at those species too!
@Clorgan After you told me about some more witherhardy fuchsia, i went looking around for a grower. Found one in the netherlands with about 3600species of fuchsia's. With a few 100 winterhardy species. After the lockdown, going there to buy a few more nice looking species.

Only ships to EU: https://www.fuchsiakwekerij.nl/web-fuchsia-s/winterharde-fuchsia-s (If you you google chrome, and right click the page, you can translate it to your own language.)

It amazes me how many species there are

 

[Clorgan]

Ive not found Fuchsia Microphila to be winter hardy outdoors here in UK- in fact It even died when I kept it over winter indoors - it seems to be very fussy,

IMHO Fuchsia Lady Bacon is one of the best hardy varieties. Totally hardy, outdoors in UK, small leaves, and prolific small flowers all summer:- Its only downside is it gets a bit shaggy when you leave it to flower like this , but it responds well to clip and grow!!

View attachment 361442

Alsolutely love this one! Give it a few years and my one from you will be there

 

[Clorgan]

I love that fuchsia are so cheap and readily available here in the UK.

Here's one I worked on just now. Genii I believe. Cound be wrong, dog nicked the label from the pot was looking a little sorry for itself before the work.

Potentially a nice little mame/shohin project. Probably shohin due to leaf size.

 

[Jansai..]

I love fuschia. It's a shame they are barley used in bonsai. I have discovered that one of my relatives has plenty of them in their garden so unfortunately they will have to say goodbye to their branches as I will be airlayering them all off!
Harry Harrington was my inspiration to make fuschia bonsai. He made a progression of one. http://www.bonsai4me.com/AdvTech/ATfuchsiaprogression.htm

 

[Clorgan]

I love fuschia. It's a shame they are barley used in bonsai. I have discovered that one of my relatives has plenty of them in their garden so unfortunately they will have to say goodbye to their branches as I will be airlayering them all off!
Harry Harrington was my inspiration to make fuschia bonsai. He made a progression of one. http://www.bonsai4me.com/AdvTech/ATfuchsiaprogression.htm

Definitely! I'm always so envious when I see really old huge ones in gardens I pass! I'd love to see how you get on with the air layers if you go ahead.

Yeah I saw this progression, really nice. Clever use of the rock too!

I've been eyeing up this one I planted in my garden last year. Being new I'm pretty sure I didn't do any root work which is annoying. Not sure whether to dig up and do root work now or leave for another year?

 

[Jansai..]

Definitely! I'm always so envious when I see really old huge ones in gardens I pass! I'd love to see how you get on with the air layers if you go ahead.

Yeah I saw this progression, really nice. Clever use of the rock too!

I've been eyeing up this one I planted in my garden last year. Being new I'm pretty sure I didn't do any root work which is annoying. Not sure whether to dig up and do root work now or leave for another year?

Are you putting it back into the ground after you do the root work?

 

[Jansai..]

Definitely! I'm always so envious when I see really old huge ones in gardens I pass! I'd love to see how you get on with the air layers if you go ahead.

Yeah I saw this progression, really nice. Clever use of the rock too!

I've been eyeing up this one I planted in my garden last year. Being new I'm pretty sure I didn't do any root work which is annoying. Not sure whether to dig up and do root work now or leave for another year?

I think wait till next year because I believe it's too late. Take my advice with a grain of salt because I'm a covid newb.

 

[Clorgan]

I think wait till next year because I believe it's too late. Take my advice with a grain of salt because I'm a covid newb.

Yeah was going to go back in the ground. You may likely be right on this one!

 

[Clorgan]

More! Picked these up from a supermarket (Morrisons), all hardy here (apparently) in the UK.

Delta Sarah, Shrimp Cocktail and Dollar Princess. All look to have quite large leaves and flowers, so probably not the best bonsai candidates but we'll see.
Shrimp Cocktail looks to have a particularly lovely flower - a kind of marble effect!

Attached photos found of each flower

 

[Carol 83]

More! Picked these up from a supermarket (Morrisons), all hardy here (apparently) in the UK.

Delta Sarah, Shrimp Cocktail and Dollar Princess. All look to have quite large leaves and flowers, so probably not the best bonsai candidates but we'll see.
Shrimp Cocktail looks to have a particularly lovely flower - a kind of marble effect!

Attached photos found of each flower

I've never seen any "Hardy Fuchsia" here. But I have seen the purple/red combo. For sure am going to pick up a couple if I can find them. They sell out really fast at the nurseries.

 

[Clorgan]

I've never seen any "Hardy Fuchsia" here. But I have seen the purple/red combo. For sure am going to pick up a couple if I can find them. They sell out really fast at the nurseries.

Wonder why they're so uncommon where you are? Climate I'm presuming?

Definitely worth a go - majority of mine are in very early stages, but they're so cheap and lovely

 

[Carol 83]

Wonder why they're so uncommon where you are? Climate I'm presuming?

Definitely worth a go - majority of mine are in very early stages, but they're so cheap and lovely

Yes, climate. They would never survive a winter here. They are sold as annuals.

 

[Mapleminx]

More! Picked these up from a supermarket (Morrisons), all hardy here (apparently) in the UK.

Delta Sarah, Shrimp Cocktail and Dollar Princess. All look to have quite large leaves and flowers, so probably not the best bonsai candidates but we'll see.
Shrimp Cocktail looks to have a particularly lovely flower - a kind of marble effect!

Attached photos found of each flower

I wasn’t even aware they came in different colors, I could learn to appreciate the purple/white one. I’ve never really been a fan of the plant as the standard variety remind me of a rather hideous chapter of my childhood that I would rather forget.
That being said you have some nice trees, even if I have avoided reading this thread until now.

 

[Clorgan]

This chunky one has took off the big stump at the front needs removing. And I think I need to do some bud selection!

 

[Clorgan]

I wasn’t even aware they came in different colors, I could learn to appreciate the purple/white one. I’ve never really been a fan of the plant as the standard variety remind me of a rather hideous chapter of my childhood that I would rather forget.
That being said you have some nice trees, even if I have avoided reading this thread until now.

Sorry missed this! Ah that's a shame, they remind me of my childhood in a more positive way luckily, possibly why I love them so much.

Hopefully this thread may sway you to like them a little more

 

[Clorgan]

Here is a Fuchsia lover.
The one you got today is a winderhard Fuchsia. Easy to handy, and nice little flowers. Are the others from the pictures also winterhardy?
I like the non-hardy with double skirt flowers. I keep them in the dark basement over the winter. I did not bonsai them.

You might like this species, its the Fuchsia Microphillia(winterhardy). Smallest flowering fuchsia.
The one in the picture is about 7cm high. They can get to 100cm in 10years time.
Got this one as a cutting without roots of 4cm in spring 2020. As it growed out end of summer as this little guy in the picture.
I did protect it 5weeks ago with the snow/freezing storm. Your in uk so you most have had the same weather as i (the netherlands)
Kept in the basement for a week and put it back outside. Leaves are now "lilac / bordeau red / darkiss purple/ pink" like leaves. Guess the leaves got a tan of the cold weather. It did not shed it leaves, don't know if that is normal for this species.

Thought you might be interested - ordered this little microphylla last night

I'm pretty sure they do need protection from frost though, still need to figure out how I'll go about that - I usually try to stick to hardy ones, but this one swayed me!

 

[Lutonian]

Nice fuchsia's the microphylla has the potential to be a really nice tree, it will be cool to see it develop. There are a few specialist nursery's for fuchsia in the uk. https://www.lockyerfuchsias.co.uk/
https://littlebrookfuchsias.co.uk/Selection.asp?Qry=C:Hardy Cultivars

 

[rorror]

Looks amazing! Good find! Nice trunk! Hope mine will grow good this year. It's still in it's small pot, but it rooted trough the drainage holes into a other pot. So at this moment it is taking off in growth!
I only protected this fuchia one week with frost of -10 /-15. All other nights with frost it was outside.

they remind me of my childhood in a more positive way luckily, possibly why I love them so much.

Same here. My dad grew them when i was young. When he died, i started growing them myself as a sort of reminder of him.

 

[Clorgan]

Nice fuchsia's the microphylla has the potential to be a really nice tree, it will be cool to see it develop. There are a few specialist nursery's for fuchsia in the uk. https://www.lockyerfuchsias.co.uk/
https://littlebrookfuchsias.co.uk/Selection.asp?Qry=C:Hardy Cultivars

Thanks! Yeah I think it's got great potential, and already looking fairly tree-like. It's pretty tiny - 11cm apparently (assuming that doesn't include the pot but who knows). I just hope they're not too fussy with the weird UK spring weather. Definitely need to look into winter protection. Cheers for the links - will have a look now!