Bobolink

'Bobolink' is a very nice surprise! I purchase new varieties for my collection when they are just tiny little 2" starts. And it is very rare for any of them to have flowers on them. So I often don't know what a new variety is going to look like until it starts to bloom.

Which is one of the reasons for posting a fuchsia from my collection here each day. To help provide one more source of photographs of upright fuchsias in bloom. If you go to my website, you'll see examples for full sized bushes for each variety that has grown large enough to be called a bush ;-)

So this little guy is going to be an upright bush full of these blossoms someday. You'll see! It was transplanted into this five gallon container just before a heat wave. When a small plant is transfered to a much larger container, it will spend all of it's energy growing roots for a long time. It will seem as though it isn't doing anything at all. But once it has done that, and has the root system in place to support allot of growth, it will explode with new growth. Of course, we are headed for winter now, so we will see. The days still get warm and they are out in the full sun, so there is still time for some good growth to happen.

Burgundian

'Burgundian' is a fast growing, vigorous upright bush. In contrast, Scarlet O'Hara is much slower and denser. Walz Gigolo is slower also and with blossoms about half the size of Burgundian. All three have this rich red wine coloration to them. But are three very different flowers and bushes. Each with it's own special qualities. You can see why this one is named after the Burdundy region of France. All of the upright fuchsia bushes in my collection grow out in the full sun for most of the day. Occasionally, it gets hot enough to even toast my roses, so I can't be surprised when some fuchsia blossoms get singed also. Burgundian made it through this summers heat waves with flying colors! Not a singed leaf or blossom.

Brookwood Joy

'Brookwood Joy' is a double beauty! Not a very fast grower, but nice and compact. With strong branches to support the large blossoms. I am not usually a fan of marbled colorations. Whether it is on a flower or foliage. This one does it well though, don't you think? And there are double blossoms and then there are double blossoms.... Sometimes there are even semi-doubles. I think it is safe to say, this is definately a double blossomed fuchsia! It is going to be a stunning bush when it gets bigger.

Fuchsia boliviana 'alba'

Fuchsia boliviana 'alba' is a species of fuchsia very different from the vast majority of fuchsia varieties one commonly sees. Most of the varieties we see in gardens and plant nurseries are all decended from just a few species.

The fuchsia I mentioned in the previous post, for example, is of a very different species than our common fuchsias.

You can probably tell from looking at the photo, that the blossoms on boliviana are quite different also! If you could feel the leaves, you'd discover they are "furry," like velvet, not like most fuchsias we know at all.

Species like these are becoming more easily available now as more and more people are asking for them. This one becomes a nice large bush.

Blue Flame

'Blue Flame' is one of the compact uprights that can be counted on to provde a crown of lots of little flowers on a relatively small bush compared to how large some can get. There are actually species of fuchsia that grow to heights of over 40' feet. Yes, forty feet high fuchsia trees!! One lady in the forums at DavesGarden.com remarked that a friend of hers from Brazil told her they use fuchsia wood as firewood and she wasn't sure she could believe her! But it is true.

And then there are the little guys like Blue Flame :-) What a range, huh?

The specimen in this photo is just getting started and was only a 2" start two months before.

Blue Eyes

'Blue Eyes' is usually grown as a hanging basket. Fortunately, I felt that it didn't need to be and it is now a two foot high bush right next to my four foot high Voodoo. Another fuchsia which can go either way and is usually grown as a hanging basket. Which is sad, because most hanging basket fuchsias are treated like annuals and thrown away when it gets too hot for them to cope with being in those small pots, or when it gets too cold. Have I mentioned this before ;-)?

The blues are my favorite. I am hoping that someday I will find an upright fuchsia with this corolla and white sepals. Blue Eyes lives out in the full sun and cold winter without ill effect. Did you know fuchsia flowers can be used as decorations on deserts? They are edible, but I haven't tried eating one yet. I doubt they taste all that wonderful, but at least now you know they can't do you any harm and can be useful. They can also be floated in bowls of water. And if it is a variety with nice long sprigs of blossoms, they make great floral arrangements.

Examples of full sized bushes of most of my upright fuchsia collection can be found on my website. There is a link to it here to your right.

Black Prince

'Black Prince' is a great little compact bush. It doesn't grow very fast, so it would be great in a container to provide almost year round color in the sun or semi-shade. This little guy is almost always covered with these intensely colored little blooms. And the berry has a nice flavor too! Some fuchsia berries are a bit bland. So far, the smaller berries have proven to be the better tasting ones. I have heard the flavor compared to figs, but I think they taste more like a cross between a blueberry and a raison. The best tasting berry so far though, it the little black ones on Lycioides.

This photo illustrates one of the characteristics of fuchsias I love the most, how the blossoms change colors as they mature. So it can seem as though you have two different flowers on the same buch!

Black Magic

'Black Magic' is another beauty. I'm not usually fond of the doubles, but this one looks like it is going to be a vigorous and bushy upright. Not all fuchsia bushes take the same form. Some are very dense and bushy on their own, others need to be clipped because they put out such long branches. Those are the ones best suited for a large open space where they can show off how wide they can get :-) This one is putting out plenty of short upward branches on it's own. And the branches appear sturdy enough to handle the extra weight of these larger blossoms. Some double fuchsias tend to give under the weight and their branches get pulled sideways.

Plus this one is growing faster than most of the other starts purchased at the same time. So it is something to look forward to.

Billie Green

'Billie Green' was another mistake, or so I thought :-)

It looked too much like Gartenmeister Bonstedt to me! And that one just shouts boring at me!

They are members of a "Section" of fuchsias called Triphyllas. They are "cultivars" of Triphyllas. They have red tinged foliage and long tubular corollas. And as far as I know, are always a shade of orange or close to it.

But 'Billie Green' has won my heart. It's not only is a heat champion, it is growing faster than almost any other fuchsia cultivar I have except 'Cardinal.' The blossoms have a wonderful pink, almost "peachy," tinge to the orange. And it is always covered with hundreds of blossoms. I would say it is crowned with blossoms. The hummingbirds are certainly happy with it :-D

Ben Jammin

'Ben Jammin' is a cute little thing, isn't it? Cool name too! It doesn't grow very fast. And I am expecting it to be more of a low mounding bush that won't get too much higher than maybe two feet at best. But it would look really nice flowing over a wall or trained up a trellis. Actually, this one just might be a very good candidate for my experiment with fuchsias as indoor blooming houseplants... Because it wouldn't get too big, too fast and have to be cut back all of the time. I think my kitchen window needs one of these!

Beauty of Cliff Hall

'Beauty of Cliff Hall' has quite a name, doesn't it? It is a beauty though! Another simple flower, a bit bigger than most of my favorites, but still very nice. I am fond of the ones with the white sepals that contrast so well with brightly colored corollas. This one is not the fastest growing fuchsia among the uprights. But it does have a nice compact form to it. It isn't going to get leggy on me anytime soon. It also was a champion in this summers heat wave. Not a scorched leaf on it! I think this one is going to be like a smaller version of Duchess of Albany.

Bashful Lady

'Bashful Lady' is not listed as being a winter hardy upright, but I am hoping she will turn out to be one. This isn't the best photo I've ever taken, and I will replace it as soon as it recovers from the heat wave we had late this summer. It is growing well now, but did sustain some damage. Sometimes the heat combined with full sun just causes them to grow much more densely than they would otherwise. Which can make it seem as though they are growing slower. And sometimes if a fuchsia sustains sun damage, it was because they were transplanted too close to the time of year when extremes in heat can be expected and it doesn't have time to grow a root system which would enable it to deal with the extremes in heat. This one probably would have been better off in an area with a little more protection from the sun. But growing upright fuchsias out in the open is a very important part of the entire plan here. Next, I'll be finding out which ones can handle the cold.
And on an entirely different page, I am also going to try my hand at growing a few varieties as indoor blooming houseplants. I have heard of this and want to see how that goes.
Plus, I have planted three varieties as bonsai! There is a whole website devoted to fuchsias as bonsai. I think it is a great idea!

Barbara Hanson

'Barbara Hanson' was a bit hard to track down! It is listed on the FindThatFuchsia website, but with no details. Which is unusual, as they list the colors of the sepals and corolla, the form (upright or trailer), the country a variety was hybridized in, the hybridizer, and the year a new variety was hybridized. The records go all the way back to the early 1800's! If possible, they also provide a photo of the fuchsia flower.

In this case, the photo has been provided by the Vallejo Fuchsia Society in California. I am a bit surprised FindThatFuchsia didn't even list the colors of this blossom. The double corolla is such a striking color with the purple fading into pink at the top of each petal.

This is one more I will be waiting on to see how big it will get. So far, it hasn't grown as fast as most of the others. It could be not as heat tolerant as they are. Perhaps it will surprise me now that the weather has cooled off.

Autumn Orange

'Autumn Orange' has a wonderful shade of dusky rose, so much like the leaves of autumn and not the colors one would normally associate with fuchsias. Like all of the fuchsias in my collection, it is an upright bush. And like so many of them, it is a new one for me and is not yet very big. So it will be a while before I see what it looks like as a bush.

I know I really need to update the website with photos of my fuchsias as full sized bushes. That is one of the promises I've made which makes Pedricks Corner (the website, not this blog) different. All the other websites just give you a peek at a flower. Most of the time, you can't even see what the leaves are supposed to look like. One of the remarkable features of fuchsias is that the foliage of each variety is as unique to that variety as it's flower! A practiced eye can tell what variety a fuchsia is by just it's foliage. There are very few other plants one can do that with. Fibrous begonias are another, and they too, originate primarily from South America!

So my goal is to show examples of each variety of fuchsia in my collection as both a close up, and as a full sized bush. What form a bush will take, should impact ones decision in acquiring new varieties that are going to be part of a landscape.

Alice Kling

'Alice Kling' is listed as an upright, but she ain't doing that for me so far! I like it anyway, so I am going to work with it. With pruning, eventually it will grow a trunk and I can gradually work it upwards. But it is always going to be a bit mounding and will have hanging branches, sort of like a small weeping willow tree. It could be trained as a "standard." But I don't want to involve any means of support. Otherwise, it has been a trouper. It grows fast and handled the heat wave late this summer very well. Not a bit of sunburn on it!

Hey, I wonder if anyone has ever tried training fuchsias up trellis's?

Amber Rose

'Amber Rose' was one of my mistakes. I only want to collect and grow upright fuchsias. But since I only buy them as tiny fuchsia starts, it is often impossible to tell what they are going to look like as a bush. Usually, a tag will tell you if a fuchsia is an upright or trailing. And to be honest with you, this one did have a tag which said trailer, I just wasn't paying attention.

So for a long time, it was relegated to the back of all the others. Of course I watered it and fertilized it along with all the others, but I never really paid much attention to it otherwise.

Then one day I realized it was actually a pretty cool little fuchsia with interesting possibilities outside of being in a hanging basket. It was not in a hanging basket, it was in a low container, when I realized it would make an excellent mounding ground cover to cascade down my steep gravel hillside! Right now, an English Thyme and a Tri-colored Sage are doing that, but there is room for something more there.

And now that I am going to be trying my hand at using fuchsias in bonsai, I think this would make an excellent bonsai specimen! The tiny thick leaves already look like the carved jade leaves one finds on statue bonsai. Properly trained and pruned, I think it is going to be remarkable!

Ain't She Sweet

'Ain't She Sweet' is going to be one of my favorites, I just know it! I have a particular fondness for the small and simple flowers. Just imagine a big bush full of these. This is another one which will be a learning adventure. How big will this one get? We will find out.

I am going to be trying my hand at bonsai with fuchsias and I think ones with the smaller flowers will do best. One thing people don't get to appreciate who only grow hanging baskets, is the fascinating texture and colors of the bark which forms on well developed trunks of the older fuchsia bushes. A characteristic that will lend itself to making interesting bonsai specimens.

Alsace

'Alsace' is one of a plethora of red and white fuchsias, but I like it. What I call the "skirt" is actually the corolla. This one has a semi-double skirt that doesn't open the same way most of the red and whites do. The outer edge of the petals stay a bit more curved inwards. Before the flower is fully open, it is a more stricking white against the red than some of the others also. You'll see when I post 'Santa Claus' and 'White Wonder' to name a few. That is going to be a while though, because, as you may have noticed, I am trying to go in alphabetical order :-)

Abby Rose

This fuchsia was actually a generic one gallon purchased at a retail chain stores garden department with the simple label on it of "Upright Fuchsia." Which means it is not a variety which has been registered with a name. So I named it after my niece!

It cannot be found in the Plant Files of DavesGarden.com or any other source, because only fuchsias with registered names, the hybridizer, and the date of hybridization are considered for entry. This saves us all a great deal of confusion if adhered to.

'Abby Rose' could probably be grown as either an upright or a hanging basket. But I don't grow hanging baskets, they die way to quickly in the size of pots one can use for hanging. With a bit of pruning, she has developed and a form unique to herself. What form a bush is going to take, is another aspect of fuchsias one will never see in a hanging basket and almost never see at any website. Except mine ;-) I dedicate a whole section just to photographs of them as bushes.

Anita

Here is 'Anita', such a cute little flower, isn't it? I am not really into orange. I love everything blue! But orange is not the color that comes to mind when most people hear the word "fuchsia," so I've always had a soft spot for fuchsia's with orange in them. And I am especially partial to the small and simple flowers. This one is new to my collection this summer, so I don't know yet how fast it is going to grow, nor how tall it can get.

She's going to be beautiful when she's a bigger bush full of these little bright flowers.

My Fuchsia Collection - Amigo

Hi, been a long time this time! I've been working hard on many things. But it is time to get back to posting here on a regular basis. And I think one thing I would like to do is post a new fuchsia every day. Just like I have been doing at DavesGarden.com

All of the ones I will be showing here, where purchased in little 2" pots. That way I could get more varieties, but it requires me to be patient while I wait for each one to bloom for the first time. This one is a cool dude named 'Amigo'.