Are you interested in learning How You can Grow Fuchsia Plant in the easiest and best way ever possible?
Would you like to have a Step-by-Step Guide that is perfect for beginners?
Here, in this article, we will teach you how to grow and take care of the Fuchsia Plant in the easiest way possible.
The romantic, vibrant-colored fuchsia has amazing blossoms that dangle beautifully from hanging baskets, flowerpots, or over the soil in a flower garden.
The fuchsia flower will bloom and will give plenty of flowers for the complete summer. This plant can also be grown indoors if you provide proper care.
What You Need To Know About Fuchsia
- The fuchsia gets its name after Leonhard Fuchs. He was a German doctor who lived in the early 1500s. Where did they come from?
- Almost all the varieties of fuchsia that we know come from New Zealand, South and Central America, and Tahiti.
- Originally, nearly 100 varieties of fuchsia were known, but they have been hybridized so much that today there are actually countless varieties on the market.
- Fuchsias are low-growing, bush, or sometimes tree-like plants. We still cultivate many varieties as indoor plants, and one of them is so hardy that it can grow in the winter (in the South).
- Most of the cultivated varieties of fuchsia plants are hybrids, which may be low, rather droopy flowering plants, shrub-like plants or semi-tall trees. People often prop them up with support sticks or a trellis to allow the beautiful flowers to hang freely from the leaf crown that radiates from a slender stem.
- What I love most about this plant is that it is so very rich in color. The eye-catching colorfulness of the flower is due to the richly colored leaf lobes, sepals, and petals.
- Fuchsias attain the peak of their beauty when kept in cool conditions in half-shade. Too much sunshine and warmth often lead to rapid flower loss and severe evaporation from stems and leaves. Always make sure that the fuchsia plant gets the water it needs during the growth period.
- All varieties of fuchsia do require special care, but they will reward all your hard-earned efforts by forming lovely new flower buds on the tips of their stems for you to admire.
Should You Buy One or Plant From Seed?
It’s always easier to buy an already established plant, but you can plant from seed when growing a hardy fuchsia if you like.
This is a truly wonderful, drought-tolerant, 4–9″ perennial plant that offers striking pink and purple hanging blooms. It is hardy to zones 6–9 and is frost tender. It flowers from mid-summer through mid-fall.
What to Look for and When to Buy
- Fuchsia plants are usually best purchased in the early spring before all the pretty flowers burst forth from their buds.
- When purchasing, make sure all the parts of the plant are fresh and juicy. Also, be sure and check for bugs, pests, and disease. Do make sure that the stems of any existing flowers that may have already bloomed are not flaccid, too.
- If you buy your plants online or from a garden magazine, be sure and check that the retailer offers a refund if the plant arrives damaged or diseased.
Colors and Scents
It’s hard to believe that such a pretty flower-like the fuchsia plant has a weak fragrance. Fortunately, the stunning flowers make up for what it’s lacking in the scent department and come in almost every beautiful color shade imaginable (except a true blue).
My favorite is the beautiful pink fuchsia color. What’s yours? Tell us in the comment section.
Note: All fuchsia plants bloom from the months of May through September.
How to Water and Feed Fuchsia Plants
The fuchsia plant needs regular watering. Also, liquid plant food should be added to the water during the growth period: April through September.
It is an easy plant to grow, as long as it is given a light, cool spot and kept shielded from the blazing sunshine.
Size, Lifespan and Growth Rate
Fuchsias can last for many years if given a period of stable conditions before planting or placing them among other plants in your garden.
It comes in almost every size and shape. Some of them can remain outdoors all year round, but most of them are cultivated as house plants or for re-planting outdoors in summer only.
Light and Temperature for Fuchsia Plants
Fuchsias grow most beautifully in half-shade. Indoors, it prefers a west-facing window. The temperature should suit the amount of light, which is moderate in summer and cool in winter.
How to Prune a Fuchsia Plant
All the varieties of fuchsia plants need pruning or pinching back to achieve an attractive shape. Fuchsia plant growth is naturally bushy. Thus the plant may lack the strength to remain upright.
However, it is easy to propagate the fuchsia by pinching back ungainly shoots throughout the summer. If you forget, winter pruning is still possible.
Create a Small Fuchsia Tree
Creating a fuchsia plant from a tall stem is easy. Remove all the shoots on the side and branches. Do this until the required trunk height is achieved. The hanging varieties, in particular, are quite attractive as tall-stemmed plants or trees.
Now pinch back the crown by removing unwanted shoots throughout the summer (or, by winter pruning) to get the desired bush shape.
As the plant grows, tying becomes necessary. Tying and pruning are both important.
These plants flower so vigorously that the stems are almost overwhelmed. Pruning is of no use in such cases. But using a stick to support the plant in this period becomes necessary.
Hardy Red Fuchsia
Hardy Red Fuchsia brings a new attraction to your garden. It puts on an amazing display of red pendant flowers. Flowers of these plants attract hummingbirds from early summer to mid-fall.
These beautiful, breathtaking extremely ornamental plants can grow 6 feet tall! The best part is that this one is completely cold hardy. Moreover, rabbits don’t like them.
Hardy Red Fuchsia is deciduous in colder parts of the country and evergreen in southern climates. It grows well in full sun to partial shade. In USDA zones 3, 4, and 5, it needs heavy mulching.
