Fuchsia very slow to show growth

Maeve Drogheda · Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 11:40 am Post subject: Fuchsia very slow to show growth

Hi fellow gardeners,

Has anyone noticed that their shrub fuchsia is very slow to show any growth.

I have a very large hedge fuchsia and there is nothing, not a bud nothing showing, and I wonder did the winter weather do the damage?

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Maeve

Sive · Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 12:42 pm Post subject:

I thought I had lost some fuschias until I saw all the growth coming from the very base.....check really low down to see are there new shoots coming. They will have a lot of catching up to do as so much of the twiggy growth was killed by the frosts....but they are great survivors, and I'm sure they'll be fine in another year or two.

Sive · Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 12:44 pm Post subject:

Sorry wrong spelling ! Should be fuchsias.

Margo · Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 6:10 pm Post subject:

Also check for vine weevil. They are little white maggots with a black head, and they just love fuschia roots and shoots.

Her Outdoors · Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 11:13 pm Post subject:

walltoall · Posted: Thu May 12, 2011 9:53 am Post subject: Fuchsias regrowing after frost

Well done Sive and "Her Indoors". Fuchsia is susceptible to prolonged cold below -5 but it stores life below ground level and can come back. Think about the fuchsia 'hedges' all along the south and west coasts which are well over a hundred years old and must have seen some deadly winters. But note there is considerably less old fuchsia in the centre of the island which historically gets severely low temperatures more often.

Incidentally, I 'lost' an Orange tree and a Lemon tree this winter for the same reasons of prolonged and serious cold freezing the whole tree. Optimism guided me and I left them where they were apparently dead but included them in my garden watering programme.

(We've had 4mm of rain since 25th March!)

Shoots are now appearing at the base of the original trees, which were about five years old and had not yet fruited. Being a gardener is about being an optimist. (I can't really picture a pessamistic gardener, can you?)

There are many other garden plants which are susceptible to occasional cold loss by deep freeze. I understand that in Ireland this Winter an awful lot of Cordyline got done. They won't come back, for a very special reason. They store large amounts of water in their trunks to allow them survive droughts for years. But this is their downfall in persistent cold below -5. The stored water freezes if the severe cold lasts more than 48-72 hours.

Oddly enough none of our three cordylnes got done. I think we may have not dropped below the critical -5 for long enough.

michael brenock · Posted: Thu May 12, 2011 10:23 am Post subject:

I feel that many of the "dead" fuchsias will spring to life again coming up from the base. I have seen it happen before. Fuchsia got its name from a man called Fuchs so it was decided to call the genus Fuchsia sounds better.
michael brenock Horticultural advisor (retired)

kindredspirit

Maeve Drogheda · Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 7:59 am Post subject:

I cut back all the dead wood and there is plenty of growth coming from the base. Thanks Sive and her outdoors, I was delighted to see it come back to life.

Usually I don't worry about it as it usually looks dead, and then it bursts in to life, but it was taking a long time to come back this time. Gardening is really a rollercoaster ride at times!!