| Barbara Rotherham of Shadie Stables, a nursery in Pukekohe, South Auckland, has compiled these notes after years of experience growing and propagating fuchsias. |
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Fuchsia fans know how much fun it is to pot up a small plant and watch it grow in just a few weeks, into a stunning plant with flowers that resemble tiny ballerinas dancing down the sides of a hanging basket, or standard, or bush.
Luckily for fuchsia novices, this joy requires very little skill or hard work.
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Care of Fuchsia Plants
Watering, Grooming |
The care of fuchsias, whether bought as a young mail order plant or a more established cultivar is not particularly costly from Shadie Stables. It does, however, call for some attention and some time.
This begins with watering. A plant with so much foliage has substantial water requirements because the leaves constantly transpire a great deal of water. On the other hand a continuously wet mix is extremely harmful; particularly to newly potted plants which have not yet completely filled the new soil in the now larger pots. Water heavily once, and hold off the next watering until the plant has become almost dry.
Never allow fuchsias to dry out completely although this danger is not so great because lack of water can immediately be recognised from the leaves. They lose their firm freshness, become dull and soft and 'flop about'.
In extreme cases a fuchsia that has become completely dry sheds its leaves, buds and flowers.
On hot summer days, especially if it is also windy, watering can often be done twice, morning and evening. On such days the plants are kept cool through additional spraying or light sprinkling of the leaves and surrounding area.
An important part of the care is the continuing removal of the withered flowers and of the production of seed pods. If the fuchsias are spared the development of these seed pods, they can concentrate their energy on forming brand new flowers.
Yellow and damaged leaves should also be cleared away, during the course of the summer.
Great attention must be paid at all times to pests, apart from the green aphids which are very visible at the ends of shoots, check underneath as well for Red Spider and White Fly.
At the end of all this: keep up the water if growing in pots, because of the plants' substance is made up of hydrogen, carbon and oxygen. These elements don't appear in fertilisers. The plant extracts these from air and water by the wonderful process known as photosynthesis. Both the oxygen and hydrogen are derived from water. That's why plants grow ahead so strongly after a drought. A plant deprived of water isn't just thirsty, its starving too.
Wintering over
Fuchsia have the ability to re-shoot from a well-established root zone. Don't be loath to pamper your plants, it’s perfectly natural to cover them against bitter weather.
Any mulch, be it straw, compost, seasoned manure, shredded newspaper on leaves, will protect your fuchsias if they face the threat of frost. This mulch also prevents rapid dehydration of soil moisture in summer, yet allows for perfect drainage. It is, above all, the mulching of soils that gives us the perfect environment for plant growing in any climate.
Fertilising Fuchsias
Most fertilisers and potting mixes use a table to indicate the balance of nutrients. This ratio is usually given in "NPK", standing for Nitrogen, Phosphorus and (k) Potash.
- N Nitrogen produces strong, lush leaf growth. but used to excess it can delay flowering and cause a soft floppy plant.
- P Phosphorus makes for strong root development and balances the nitrogen in strengthening top growth and excess can stunt a plant.
- K Potash is good for strengthening an already healthy, balanced growth. It will stunt and cause delayed flowering if used over much.
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