Fuchsia Pumila - Help

[bagpuss]

I have one of these in the Garden, (which hasn't stopped flowering since I bought it in September!!! I know that it is a hardy Fuchsia, but can anyone help with regard to if it requires pruning. At the moment it is still a small shrub (probably not quite a foot in height). Any help gratefully received.

www.wibblefarmnurseries.co.uk/acatalog/pumila150.jpg

[Rosefriend]

Hi Bagpuss

Well I love hardy Fuchsia's - only trouble here hardy isn't hardy - I have to have plants that can cope with a minimum of minus 15 before we call them hardy.

I have 4 different hardy fuchsia's - of which F. magellanica var. pumila is one of then.

Mine naturally die down and I cut them off and just wait for them to grow again - they do however start very late - end of April/May.

However this year is so mild and I have been and had a look, and I am also amazed that there are still one or two flowers, but I will probably have to cut back and so will you.

I hope that someone from the UK answers - there is such a difference in temperature here - well normally anyway.

Rosefriend

[Chuckles]

Hi bagpuss, really easy to look after.....the stems do die back naturally in winter. Sometimes depending on how mild it is at end of March beginning of April you may see shoots start to appear on the bottom 6 inches of the stems. You can just prune back to these or you can prune all the stems down to a couple of inches from the ground. Hard pruning makes for a bushier bush I have mine in pots and they do like there water ;D during the growing period

[Rosefriend]

Thanks Chuckles, - you have helped me there as well. I have never had to look to see if anything was alive or not. I just cut them off and waited to see if anything else would come.

I brought a Mrs Popple years ago, and it was lovely all the summer months - I never saw it again. Apparently it only goes to minus 5.

RF

[Chuckles]

I have a couple in pots so that does restrict them in growth slightly, they were cutting from OH's Grandads gdn so are special because of that, he died many many years ago