Deannart you have some lovely, well grown Fuchsias, you have the magic touch. Fuchsias have been one of my passions for many years, back in the 80's I had approximately 350 varieties in my collection. This is the first year I haven't grown any at all. Our mail order sources in Canada have dried up and even in the garden centers it's hit and miss if they are labeled with the right name. Claire de Lune was one of my favorites, but I really like the WALZ varieties like WALZ Haarp and WALZ Polka, then the triphyllas, especially Mantilla and Trumpeter both hanging basket varieties. At this stage of the game I'd still like to grow a few if I could find some of the nicer varieties locally. Storing 60 hanging basket varieties plus all the uprights was getting to be too much work, the greenhouse was so jam packed I could hardly move in it. If I could just keep it down to a dozen favorites I'd still have them but you know how it goes with addictions, all it takes is one and you're off and running again LOL. Talking about Winston Churchill, that is one variety no matter what I tried wouldn't winter for me. Then there's the flat faced types like Thamar, it looks like a little pansy and then the novelty types like Pussycat. Being it was getting so hard to find other than to old standbys I didn't have the room to grow mine into decent specimens just keep 4" pots going so as not to lose the variety. IMHO, the one exception in the old standbys, Swingtime is still the best red and whites ever. Hopefully Fuchsias will come back in favor soon, before some of these beautiful varieties are lost to us forever. Annette

Hi Joe, thanks for the suggestions. I googled both and think it is probably coccinea. F. magellanica has leaves that are very obviously serrated, and this one has leaves that are only very slightly serrated, to the point that the leaf edge almost seems smooth...

Plain old Fuchsia magellanica. Every morning I took a ferry from where I lived to the town where my community college was located. Every day I walked across an old part of town. One yard I passed had a huge specimen of Fuchsia magellanica that I admired. One day I found it in a heap on the sidewalk. The owner had chopped it back severely and threw the branches in a heap on a public sidewalk. I picked up a branch, and as soon as I got to school, I wrapped it in a wet paper towel. An older classmate (I was all of 16) showed me how to take cuttings off of it. I rooted them in river sand and most of them took. 28 years later, Fuchsias taken from that original branch still live in various locations of Seattle where I have lived. I did NOT take it the last time I moved, because I have a random seedling of something that showed up in my yard, that I like better because its wood is a little hardier to hard freezes. Its flowers are smaller, but the sepals more spreading. It's just another variety of F. magellanica, that happens to look a lot like F. 'Riccartonii' which is almost certainly one of its ancestors. It is the offspring of a "hybrid" type that reverted. I tend to like older, vigorous, big-flowered "passalong" types (now no longer in general trade), flowers with particularly striking or unusual (as long as it's tasteful I suppose) colors, extreme hardies that don't freeze back (so that I can use them as part of my garden "framework"), and interesting and varied species types. It's colder here than coastal California, I do not have a greenhouse, and I do not have time to trench them in so they have to be shrub types and they have to be reasonably coldhardy (to my USDA z8b). I do not train my Fuchsias so I prefer varieties with sturdy, wiry stems. My wife likes "Beacon" for its flower shape and "xSpeciosa" for its attractive, lush foliage. She hasn't seen F. boliviana var alba splendens yet, and I think she will really like that one. 'Celia Smedley' is striking with its candy-pink sepals and vermillion petals. Some of my newer species like F. denticulata have interesting color combos. I like 'Billy Green' for its Triphylla type flowers on something that is root-hardy here (the only Triphylla type I know of that will overwinter here). The flowers are a sort of hot rosy pink that really stands out; and it's been a good bloomer. It took me a LONG time to find Madame Cornellison, and I am sorry to say that contrary to descriptions it is not very vigorous anymore. Mine never exceeds about a foot tall, and freezes back mostly. It probably used to be vigorous--over a hundred years ago (it's old). I think it has been propagated vegetatively too long. I would love to have a seedling with the color combo--basically a magellanica type with red sepals and white corolla--but more vigorous (I want something shrubby). The reverse might look even more striking: white sepals and red corolla.

Hi there Kathleen, You must be learning very well, I've missed your questions of late :) As you live in Texas I'm going to say morning sun/definitely afternoon shade. Dig in plenty of compost before planting, remember fuchsias are greedy feeders and plant a bit deeper than they are in the pots. Tease the roots out a bit before planting. Keep the soil damp for the first couple of weeks, this will help the roots to penetrate the garden soil. As they are in the garden you can water in the evenings when its cooler as the excess water will drain away. Do let us know how you get on - Kath:)