It hardly seems possible that it is almost a year since the crew from BBC Gardeners’ World visited the garden and spent the day filming. I was so lucky that the weather was on our side and I loved the short film they produced, which was finally broadcast on March 22 this year, in episode 2 of the current series. One of the sessions we recorded was me propagating a well-loved fuchsia in my garden.
You can see me pictured, demonstrating how to take cuttings and pot up the subsequent plant. I actually potted up three on camera and gave one to the producer and kept two for myself. The two that I retained are doing extremely well and are already quite substantial plants, flowering well as you can see from the image taken of one of them this week.
The plant has always been quite special to me, as the original, from which I took the cuttings, was a gift from my father to my mother, now 97, for their ruby wedding anniversary, many years ago. The plant is a fuchsia Empress of Prussia, whose large single flowers are simply regal. The tube and sepals are glowing scarlet, while the corolla is a reddish magenta.
It is free flowering, with an upright, vigorous, self-branching habit and can reach a height of 36”. It is also hardy, once established. If grown in containers and left outside all winter, they may not prove fully hardy as container growing does not afford the same level of root protection as growing in the ground, but mine have always done well both in the ground and in conta.