Hi all. I posted before but deleted so that I could give more info, sorry if anyone replied – I should still be able to see them.
I would really like to grow this fuchsia into a bush but I'm concerned that it'll die back or die completely in winter. How can I protect it so that it grows nice and large.
Thanks for your help.
by dlt-cntrl
13 Comments
Do you know the variety? Some fuchsia are hardy in much of the UK
Make sure the roots are protected from frost at the very least, alternatively you could move it into a sheltered spot that will decrease damage from the temperature drops!
If you know the variety, you can research its requirements more specifically, there’s a lot of information online.
If you don’t know the variety, more general advice is that a lot of fuchsia are just fine over winter in the UK. The general rule of thumb is not to prune until around Easter, as pruning makes them more susceptible to frost. If you aren’t sure of the variety and therefore can’t be sure how hardy it is, you can provide protection if a hard frost is forecast – extra mulch around the roots, cover it up with a bit of fleece overnight, etc. But I’ve had a non-hardy fuchsia in a pot out in my garden for the last six winters in a row, no protection whatsoever, and it has come back every spring, just because the winters have been mild enough lately that the protection of the other plants clustered around it was sufficient.
Yours looks really pretty! I’m a sucker for a fuchsia.
(I will add as a footnote that some fuchsia don’t start to shoot until quite late in the spring, so don’t give up on it if it is a bit slow to get going. They like a nice long sleep!)
The fully hardy varieties will grow large. Some can be cut back in a hard winter, though the roots can survive especially against a wall.
That one doesn’t look especially tough. If you want a large bush, you would need to lift it and put it indoors where the frost won’t damage it, then maybe keep it in a pot.
Glad you’re trying to …fuchsia proof it.
While not specifically advice on protecting this from frost, if you take cuttings from it in autumn, you should always have some backup plants should this one get killed off.
Take a cutting and take that in side to root, a spot of horticultural fleece on the mother plant
That doesn’t look like a hardy one, so over the winter it’ll need to be kept frost free and on the dry side , I suggest taking cuttings as insurance and putting the mother plant in a shed/garage/unheated conservatory until new leaf buds start breaking next year. Wrap some fleece round it and the pot for warmth
Unless we have a really severe Winter it should be ok.You’ll quite likely lose the top growth-but thats ok,Fuschias flower on the current Season’s growth so losing the top growth is not necessarily a disaster.
I prune all mine to the main stem in October ..
Fleece over it
She’ll outlive you.
Looks like F. Walz Jubelteen or very similar. If so, basically anything sub-zero will kill it. Sorry.