Gorgeous! Thank you for posting.

Hello, Lola. My sister is in Davis and she was complaining about the cold and wet. I only have one Billy Green so I better not lose it. Still no show. It was pretty cold up here back in February. Can you grow other Triphyllas like the beautiful Gartenmeister Bonstedt? Hopelessly tender here, although it is common as an annual. One Fuchsia (not a triphylla) that is supposed to be pretty hardy, but I think that it is such an old cultivar that it is probably full of viruses, is Madame Cornellison. It has never performed very well for me. Hard to find anymore. The blossoms could be a little more symmetric, too. I would like to get some seedlings off it some day and see if I could get something similar, but more vigorous. In its day it was supposed to be a big, hardy landscaping Fuchsia. It started shooting recently; I was getting worried. It was doing OK last year until an accident involving a plank from a dilapedated fence falling on it and smashing it. I'd better propagate it before I lose it. I grow them on the north side of a fence, next to the sidewalk, and people out for walks on warm afternoons get to admire them. It's a popular spot. Rain1950, ouch! It was even colder there than it was here. A lot of my really old (19th century) cultivars are surprisingly hardy. They weren't bred to be; they were bred for big flowers. But time culled all the tender ones, and a lot of the survivors of that era are very hardy. Every once in a while someone at one of the Fuchsia Societies brings back something interesting from Chile or Brazil. Someone has a Magellanica type that does not freeze back in Bellevue (which is colder than Seattle). The form "molinae" also known as "mag-alba" (bad name; it's neither alba nor precisely magenta, but more of a pale purplish rose) from Chiloe is almost that hardy. Nice plant. I had an enormous one about 7-8 feet tall and maybe 10 wide, until I moved. My starts that I brought with me never took. So it will be a while before I have one that big again. It is a common plant so I can buy another one. It was a popular plant with visitors; the novelty of standing under (barely) the canopy of a Fuchsia was intriguing to many who had never seen one that big and didn't realize it was in the realm of possibilities. One I don't have--and it's not so hardy--but I would like to have, is Fuchsia boliviana. It will freeze back but it comes back from surviving buds on the stump. I tried it from seed but it was a failure. The form I would like is "alba"--which isn't really an alba, but it has off-white tubes that contrast with the scarlet sepals and carolla. It's one of those types that has a panicle of flowers at the ends of the shoots, instead of blossoms coming out of the leaf axils.

Forest Farm have it. Link is below. You may want to buy a few plugs, grow them in pots, overwinter in coldframe(garage) and plant next year. Here is a link that might be useful: Fuchsia Riccartonii - Very Hardy Fuchsia

It will be less hardy in a container than it will be in the ground. That could be part of the problem. Otherwise, they grow perfectly well here.......I've grown them for years and have several in my current garden. I can think of no other flowering shrub with as a long a bloom season and my resident humming birds love them!! They can be quite late in the season to bud and leaf out so don't give up hope yet. Depending on exposure, it could be midMay before you see signs of life. I was very surprised to see my 'Aureum' leafing out in March but we had a very mild winter. One other hardy fuchsia in my garden - 'Dying Embers' - never even lost its leaves. A first for me!