Tuesday 8 September 2015

8 Sept : Fuchsias


I have a fondness for fuchsias because they are the first flowers that I can remember. The garden where I played as a little girl had a large fuchsia bush, rich red flowers with flouncy purple underskirts, and the buds were quite irresistible making a satisfying pop as they split open. It was probably Fuchsia 'Mrs Popple' an old hardy variety which grows in many Cornish gardens but I remember the flowers as much more voluptuous so it might have been another variety such as 'Winston Churchill'. When I first started growing fuchsias I bought the elegant 'Thalia' because my mother grew large standards of that variety in her conservatory and when I got tired of those apricot flowers I chose the white 'Annabel' and loved each frothy meringue bloom. I have never really stopped buying fuchsias for my summer pots but over the years my tastes changed and now I grow the tiny hardy varieties such as the pale pink Fuchsia 'Flashlight' in the photo. My new squeeze is a pure white version of 'Flashlight' which I bought unlabelled at the village plant sale. I don't recall seeing it in Jim's nursery even though he specialises in fuchsias but I think that it is 'Hawkshead' and it looks like the candles that you see on Victorian Christmas trees, catching sunlight in the most enchanting way. The wet summer has been ideal growing conditions and the front gardens on the way to the station are spilling over with fuchsia bushes so I am planning to plant out my white 'Hawkshead' and keep my fingers crossed for a mild winter.

[I realised after posting that I had misspelt 'Fuchsia' as 'Fuschia'. I must have done this all my life because the correct spelling looks completely wrong. How embarrassing.]

14 comments:

  1. Don't worry at all - I'm pretty sure most of us spell it wrong as technically we pronounce it wrong. I can't do it right without remembering Mr Fuchs in whose honour it was named.

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  2. Lovely, I have a few but must pay more attention to them. I will take S&D's lead on how to remember the spelling because until now I have had another method which isn't nearly so nice.

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    1. So many lovely fuchsias on show in the Shire at the moment. It must be the very wet summer that has brought them on so splendidly.

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  3. I'm battling to see Winston Churchill as voluptuous. To each his own.

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    1. Fair point. Will 'curvaceous' satisfy?

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    2. yes.
      Especially in his cordurouy, or was it velvet, boiler suit.

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  4. I've always loved fuchsias (yes, I have to think about the spelling too) and have three in my garden, all hardy and all cuttings from my mother's garden. I don't care whether they're fashionable, they are good do-ers and that is good enough for me.

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    1. I would be most interested to know how you take cuttings of fuschias. I have nipped a couple of shoots from a friend's garden but am not sure what to do next.

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  5. Oh hardy fuchsias are "good doers" as Sarah above says and are great for late summer/autumn colour. I have an ongoing battle with himself as my favourite hangs over the path which seems to annoy him greatly. I'm not sure why so I turn my head when words like "hard prune" spill from his lips.

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    1. Pruning is the front line in the Battle of the Sexes, where the conflict between Man and Woman is most bitterly fought.

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  6. My sister makes earrings and occasionally gets messages on the ansaphone from people who want to order the fucksia kind https://flic.kr/p/7dfiA4 I love fuchsia and don't care if they are not fashionable. They remind me of the hedgerows around the Antrim coast. Beautiful.

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    1. I would love to see the Antrim coast which I imagine to be very similar to that of Cornwall but wilder. Another place to add to the list!

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