Use Of Fuchsia For Decorative Purposes

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Read the previous part. ← Pruning, reproduction and transplanting fuchsia

What fun can you do with fuchsia?

- Grow a flowering curtain on the window. If you leave two rooted fuchsia cuttings in the pot and do not cut them off, you can grow garlands with hanging bell flowers all over the window, and this will be an original way to decorate it with a flowering living curtain.

To do this, you need to pull strong cords in the direction in which you want to direct the growth of the shoots. For greater density, place 2–3 of these fuchsias.

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Extend flowering for a whole year or more. I prefer not to limit the flowering of fuchsia to autumn pruning, but to extend it even more. This was achieved using AVA pellets. My fuchsias have bloomed very abundantly since spring all summer, some of the plants were on the south window, others on the south balcony in partial shade (on the floor, shaded with a continuous balcony fence). Usually I "feed" them with Uniflor-growth in spring and Uniflor-bud in summer and autumn (until October).

- In September, after the return of the plants to the house, I really didn't want to part with their flowering. Since I have been using AVA pellets in the garden for autumn feeding for a long time, I decided to try the same with potted plants, contrary to all generally accepted rules. In early October, I put a few AVA pellets into a container with perennial fuchsia, deepening them 3-5 cm. After that, only regular watering was required. The result exceeded all my expectations!

Fuchsia bloomed continuously and profusely throughout the fall, in winter buds were constantly opening on it (8-10 on average; this is not much, but every flower in winter is worth its weight in gold!). Spring pruning did not have to be done, since the young shoots were already with bunches of buds. I limited myself to pinching the side shoots to increase the number of new flowering shoots.

In spring, the flowering wave began early and actively, then in summer and autumn fuchsia bloomed very abundantly without additional fertilizing, except for nitrogen ("Unifor-growth" every three weeks), since AVA does not contain nitrogen and chlorine. (Similar results were observed on hoya, jasmine). But the following fall, this plant rested naturally, without autumn feeding. You can practice such "flower marathons" if you have several copies of the plant in stock and alternate them over the years to recuperate.

- Plant several varieties of fuchsia on one bush or standard tree. You can use any method of vaccination.

- Grow fuchsia bonsai. The branches of this plant can be bizarrely bent, pinching you can give them any desired shape and maintain the desired size. The stem quickly lignifies, its bark peels off slightly, and it is not difficult to create an interesting-looking tree shape. For this, select low-growing fuchsia varieties and an appropriate container.

- Grow fuchsias from seeds purchased in a store or obtained independently after artificial pollination of flowers of different varieties. This method gives you a chance to get plants with completely new traits that do not repeat the parental ones. To do this, fully ripe fruits are cut in dry weather, dried in a warm place, after which the seeds are carefully removed from them. They are sown superficially into a light, breathable mixture moistened with a pink solution of potassium permanganate.

Sprinkle a little on top with a thin layer of earth and spray it with a weak solution of potassium permanganate. The seed tray is placed in a plastic bag or greenhouse, you can cover it with a transparent plastic cap. Seed germination requires warmth (about 25 ° C), light (but not direct sun), constant humidity of the substrate and air. Seedlings appear in 20-50 days. Seedlings are ventilated several times a day. Dive into small pots with more nutritious soil when the second pair of leaves appears. Continue to maintain constant moderate soil and air moisture. Every two weeks, the seedlings are fed with a weak solution of complex fertilizer for growth.

- Try to leave the most resistant of the fuchsia varieties for the winter in the garden. In the fall, the bush is cut off, leaving the stem no higher than 5 cm. Then it is sprinkled with compost, covered with branches, spruce branches, matting, like other perennials sensitive to cold weather.

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- Putting partners in a container or tub with fuchsia - this will decorate it and revive the interior. Fuchsia gets along very nicely with achimenes, their joint flowering is unexpected and effective. In my collection, purple fuchsia cups are harmoniously combined with purple achimenes flowers. They bloom all summer, by the end of the season the aerial part of the achimenes dies off, its stems are cut off. Until spring, this "neighbor" does not show itself in any way.

Both plants hibernate on the windowsill, where it is pretty cool. In the spring, as soon as the first shoots of achimenes appear, you can choose several of them with nodules and plant them in a separate pot with a nutrient mixture, or plant them in another container, for example, with clerodendron. Variants of joint "living" of different plants in a pot sometimes arise spontaneously, simply because there is nowhere to attach a newly obtained seedling of lobelia or alissum, a nodule of achimenes or ceropegia, a rooted stalk of begonia, a twig of helksina.

In the open air with fuchsia in large containers, alyssum, small-flowered petunias, lobelia, brachycoma will be better combined. For ampelous varieties of white-pink fuchsia, a combination in garlands with sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) is effective, in which pink strokes and borders are clearly visible on green leaves.

I hope that bright, elegant, long-blooming, unpretentious fuchsia has attracted your attention, and there will definitely be a place for it in your garden on the windowsill.