Fuchsia flowers.

 Fuchsias are well known as container plants, and the small woody shrubs are overwintered indoors. Enthusiasts, as well as commercial growers, strike cuttings in early spring. They take root easily and come into flower soon afterwards. The mass-produced plants find their way to the containers and hanging baskets of consumers who normally allow the plants to freeze to death in autumn.

 There are also fuchsias that are grown from seed early in the year. Fuchsia procurable is a characteristic example. This New Zealand species has thin trailing stems with delicate leaves and small erect flowers in the most improbable colours for a fuchsia: deep egg yellow, aubergine, and olive green with rose-red stamens and old rose anthers. You will need to look closely, because the flowers are only about 3A in long. After the plant has flowered, reddish berries appear. These contain the seeds, which germinate easily, but briefly. Do not stand the plant in full sunlight and give it plenty of water.

 white purple fuchsia flowers.

 red fuchsia flowers.

 In addition to the genuine species suitable for sowing, there are also cultivated forms that are propagated by seed. They include the Fuseedia series (from “fuchsia” and “seed”). Fuchsia ‘Fuseedia Rose-Blue’ has a rose-red calyx and shades of violet in its corolla. Fuchsia ‘Fuseedia White-Blue’ has an almost white calyx (tinged with pale pink). The violet-blue corolla with conspicuous, protruding red stamens is suspended below it. At a height of 8-10 in, both plants remain very short and are intended mainly for planting out in flower-beds, although the latter plant also looks good in a pot or other container.

Fuchsias like warmth, but dislike drought, sun, and wind, which affect the thin leaves. It is therefore best to hang or place them in partial shade and to give them plenty of water and food.