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.]