Hardy Fuschia

macraignil

standardg60 wrote: »

You never said what variety they are op, some 'hardy' fuchsias are anything but.
Generally the larger the flower the less hardy they are, and if the soil gets particularly wet over the winter that usually does for them.
I'd gently lift one out of the ground now and check if it has any healthy root, if the soil just falls away I'd say they've had it.

I have planted about five different fuchsia varieties in my garden. The one of the five that failed to survive its first winter was the one with the smallest flowers.


I would be very reluctant to lift the fuchsia to check how it is going.

I have had the experience of disturbing a dormant plant just as they were forming delicate new shoots and killed it. The one that sticks out in my memory was a side shoot off a mahonia shrub that I got from a neighbor that had been dormant for almost a year when I decided just to confirm it was not going to sprout and when I exposed the delicate new shoots buried it again immediately, but unfortunately I had already done enough damage to finish it off.

standardg60

macraignil wrote: »

I have planted about five different fuchsia varieties in my garden. The one of the five that failed to survive its first winter was the one with the smallest flowers.


I would be very reluctant to lift the fuchsia to check how it is going.

I have had the experience of disturbing a dormant plant just as they were forming delicate new shoots and killed it. The one that sticks out in my memory was a side shoot off a mahonia shrub that I got from a neighbor that had been dormant for almost a year when I decided just to confirm it was not going to sprout and when I exposed the delicate new shoots buried it again immediately, but unfortunately I had already done enough damage to finish it off.

Unlucky personal experiences don't change rules!

macraignil

standardg60 wrote: »

You never said what variety they are op, some 'hardy' fuchsias are anything but.
Generally the larger the flower the less hardy they are, and if the soil gets particularly wet over the winter that usually does for them.
I'd gently lift one out of the ground now and check if it has any healthy root, if the soil just falls away I'd say they've had it.

standardg60 wrote: »

Unlucky personal experiences don't change rules!

I have noticed you make some good points on some other gardening topics including some questions that I posted myself. I don't believe this is an example of that.

I do not believe there are any rules in biology that say that all small flowered fuchsias are hardy and all large flowered fuchsias are not hardy. There may be a tendency for the more robust types to put less effort into their flowers but as I experienced with my one plant dying, small flowers do not automatically make for a hardier plant. Please provide some reference to support your contention that you are quoting some sort of rules that apply to all varieties of fuchsia as I simply don't believe such rules exist. I agree there may be a general tendency but to try to say these are rules that apply without exceptions is bizarre in my opinion.

looksee

I had a fuchsia that became a dead twig every winter, and every spring I would decide it was dead, but due to inertia do nothing about it. Then, way later than I would have thought possible, it would speedily send up a few new branches and produce a nice head of flowers...only to do the same again the following season.