September Plant of the Month

A popular fuchsia, with good reason! Probably because it’s one of the hardiest fuchsia cultivars and a very eye-catching shrub. Colourful yellow/green (almost golden) foliage and elegant, red and purple dangling flowers. It flowers from July through to the first frosts, so an excellent autumn performer. 

It is happy in full sun or part shade, almost any soil and forms a bushy clump up to 60-100cm high and with a similar spread.  

Fuchsia die back for the winter – usually when a hard frost kills the upper part of the plant, however they will start growing from the base again in spring. This is when they can be cut back to near ground level. This stimulates the development of strong new growth on which the flowers will be produced in late summer.

I’m not a fan of big, double fuchsia flowers, but the small flowered forms are elegant and good value plants that extend the season.

Posts from the blog:

Adding annuals

A selection of recommended annuals.

The bees are a’ buzzing!

The garden is alive with bees as they gather pollen from a whole host of flowers.

Unfurling ferns

Take the opportunity to get close up to your ferns and admire the fascinating structures that exist within this family of ancient plants.

Plant sleuth

This mystery plant had leaves that were still lush in October but with no sign of any flowers to give me a lead.