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!