Cormaic's Garden - Plants

Garden Layout - Plants - Fuchsias
I have a weakness for fuchsias, they are such lovely, rewarding flowers. I have hardy varieties dotted around the garden as permanent fixtures that return year after year, and I also grow quite a few of the half-hardy varieties in various pots, troughs and hanging baskets dotted around the garden.

Fuchsia 'Devonshire Dumpling' - I first grew this variety in 1998 and was chuffed to bits with the blushing pink, large, abundant flowers. It starts to flower in late May and continues right through until the frosts. Each plant reaches a height of about 250mm, with a trailing habit which makes it perfect for hanging baskets. Each frilly flower measures approximately 50mm in length and width - almost good enough to eat!	Fuchsia 'Devonshire Dumpling'

Unknown Fuchsia	This is a fuchsia I grew from a packet of mixed seed, so I have no idea of its name. If anyone can help, email me. It's definitely a bush fuchsia, as it has strong upward stems that reach a height of around 450mm and carry hundreds of these archetypal fuchsia flowers, cerise overskirts that peel back like a turk's cap, and a simple, tubular purple underskirt with a long frotruding stamen. tthe leaves are thick, slightly toothed and mid-green in colour. I grow it in a pot amongst trailing begonias and have managed to over-winter it in a cold frame.

Fuchsia 'Thalia' is an upright plant with 150mm long red-veined leaves that have a reddy-purple underside. The flowers are a deepish-red fading to pale pink and tubular, around 75mm long that splay open at the end to reveal the delicate inner parts. They are carried in clusters of up to 20 individual flowers and flower continually, from July through to the frosts. This specimen is growing in a trough near the patio door, and is around 750mm high. If only it were fully hardy, I would grow a full sized specimen in one of the beds; instead, I have to rely on raising new plants from cuttings each year.	Fuchsia 'Thalia'

Fuchsia 'Dark Eyes'	What can I say about this one? Fuchsia 'Dark Eyes' is an absolute beauty, and certainly the one that causes most comment in my dangly baskets. It's semi-erect, but I treat it as a a trailer. From an over-wintered cutting in a 75mm pot, each plant will reach a height of perhaps 250mm, and a spread of 500x500mm. The branches droop and carry 4 or 6 of these heavy 50mm diameter flowers to each branch. The foliage is a dark, glossy green, and it's a relatively fast grower. However, it's not frost hardy and so must be protected over the winter. Second or third year plants reach a height of 300 or 350mm with a spread of 750 x750mm, but are quite woody and need heavy pruning to get the best from them. I prefer the first year plants for dangly baskets and windy boxes, but the older plants do well in pots that can me shunted around the garden as required.

Another pale fuchsia now, Fuchsia 'Pink Marshmallow'. This has to be one of the best basket or windy box fuchsias I've ever raised. It has a phenomenol growth rate, with large, mid-green leaves and these delectable big, showy flowers, frilled beyond belief and delicately tinged with a blush of pink. It's easy to see why they were named 'Pink Marshmallow'. This is a very 'floppy' fuchsia, that needs a trailing position. A first year plant will grow to about 500mm, if straightened out. This give it a generous spread, and 2 plants would easily fill a standard dangly basket. It flowers more heavily than the Devonshire Dumpling seen above, and has less of the pink colouring, but the two are quite similar. Again, it's not a hardy plants and needs to be kept frost-free.	Fuchsia 'Pink Marshmallow'

Fuchsia 'Marinka'	Yet another trailer, this little gem is Fuchsia 'Marinka'. Unlike the other trailers above, this is a fuchsia that gets better with age, as it's a slow gower, and produces few flowers in its first year. By its second year, it has branches up to 400mm long, swathed in dark green, red-veined foliage and dozens of these red-on-red dainty flowers, each only 25-30mm in diameter. In year three, assuming it's survived the winters in a frost-free place, it has become quite woody, but still only 150mm high with a 'dtop' of around 350mm, but the flowers are more prolific. From then on, the plant needs annual pruning to encourage newer growth to supplant the older, woody growth.

And another trailer, Fuchsia 'Jack Shahan', which is a slow to moderate grower with cerise pink flowers with a hint of white on the underskirt. For some reason, this is one of the last fuchsias to flower; some seasons it can reach August before this plants opens its first bloom, but it's worth waiting for. It's similar in size to Marinka, and the two together make a good combination, although the foliage of Jack Shahan is a couple of shades lighter. I generally grow it in a wall basket with lobelia cascade, as it has this habit of coming into flower just as the lobelia passes its best, thus prolonging the life of the basket..	Fuchsia 'Jack Shahan'

Fuchsia 'Hermiena'	Fuchsia 'Hermiena' is a 'hard-work' fuchsia. It's very slow growing, perhaps 100mm per season, and unless it's trained by judicious pruning, has a tendency to become straggly and uninteresting. However, 3 year old plants that have been so trained are a joy to behold. The mid-sized white on purple flowers appear in abundance and its semi-erect habit make it an ideal fuchsia for a pot. I've a suspiscion that it is fairly hardy; one plant, accidentally overlooked and left out in the drive edging bed of the front garden throughout the winter of 1998-99, kicked off into growth again the following spring and put on a pretty decent show that summer. The oldest plant I have is now 300mm high, but would be bigger if it were not for the annual pruning in late winter.

Other varieties not photographed.... Pink Spangles Golden Swingtime Becky Jane Grumpy Mrs Popple