The Fuchsia Season is slowly coming to its end,

Posted by Siglinde on Nov 18, 2014 in Fuchsias in October | 0 comments

and this is- in my case- unfortunately as early as the start of October

despite them still flourishing luxuriously.

 

Living at an elevation of about 700m a.s. there is a good chance of night frost and snow at mid October, so at the end of the Fuchsia Season the plants should be prepared to be placed in the greenhouse previously. This, in my opinion, is to strip them of all leafs and blossoms and cut them back right to the old wooden part of the branches. To demonstrate that here are two photos from “Nicis Findling”:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another example given, with “Straat Futami” in comparison:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the saddest part of the season to me, cutting back and therefore “destroying” plants blossoming still in abundance, but this has to be done to prevent them from a total loss during winter. And though i know that this dire work takes me up to two weeks with my about 400 Fuchsias, i have to start early enough and be happy if the weather does not turn to ugly, being stormy, cold or rainy. Before placing the plants in the greenhouse they should possibly dry, sa well as the cut, to prevent them from a germ infection. This takes a few days, but some plants may even need a few weeks!   Some more photos from cut back plants and “teardrops” at the cut:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This year, 2014,  i was lucky with the weather, closing the season without to warm clothes and continually wet gloves. Therefore the work, as despise-able as it may be, was at agreeable compared to other years with nasty conditions.