The cypress family. The genus fuchsia contains just over 100 species of evergreen shrubs, or herbaceous, ampella forms. Most of them grow in the understory of foothills and highlands of Central and South America, three species and one interspecies hybrid have been discovered in New Zealand, and one in Tahiti.
Fuchsia Fuchsia was first discovered on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (Dominican Republic) in about 1696-1697, by the French monk and botanist Charles Plumier, during his third expedition to the Greater Antilles. He named the new genus after the famous German botanist Leonard Fuchs.
In fuchsia, a huge variety of varieties is due to the structure of the flowers. They are bisexual, drooping, on long pedicels. In some, primarily species fuchsias, the structural features of the flowers are that the sepals practically repeat the tubular shape of the corolla, are brightly colored, and even larger than the petals themselves .
In the other majority of varieties, the corolla tube is short, the sepals are brightly colored, star-shaped to the sides. The petals are large, wide, and form a lush "skirt." Sepals and petals can be the same color, or they can have different, contrasting colors. Stamens and pistil are outstanding, clearly visible .
- Fuchsia magellanic Fuchsia magellanica is his birthplace of Southern Argentina, Chile, and Southeastern Brazil. Evergreen shrub, 1.5 to 2 m high, stems reddish, slightly pubescent, branch well. The leaves are opposite, oval-lanceolate in shape, 4-5 cm long, pointed at the end, with a finely toothed edge. The flowers are collected in apical racemose inflorescences drooping on long pedicels. Fruits are black berries. Flowering from July to September.
- Fuchsia boliviana, synonym Fuchsia boliviensis, is a native of the mountains of Guatemala, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina. Branched, evergreen shrubs average about 1 m tall. The leaves are elliptical, pointed at the end, with a finely serrated margin, reaching 10-15 cm in length and 5-6 cm in width. Flowers are collected in multi-flowered drooping apical brushes. The perianth tube is about 6 cm, the free tips of the petals are 1.5 cm in length, the sepals are longer - up to 2 cm. It blooms in spring in March-April .
- Fuchsia bezkoraya Fuchsia excorticata - known as the fuchsia tree, native to New Zealand. Compared to other shrubby species of fuchsia, this is a tree-like deciduous species - they reach 5-15 m in height. It is rarely found as a houseplant, although bonsai would come out of it gorgeous. The trunks of fuchsia are not erect, but lying, well-branching, on average 20 cm in diameter, at the base of the tree about 70 cm. A characteristic feature is the peeling light brown bark, which hangs on the trunks in flakes, is completely absent in places. The leaves are small, elliptical, pointed at the end, about 8 cm long, 3-3.5 cm wide. The flowers are small, the petals are not visible at all, i.e. what we call a flower is four sepals fused at the base into a purple-violet tube, and green at the tips. Gradually, the flowers acquire a pink, almost red color. The pollen is unusual - blue-violet in color. Fruits - oblong purple berries, sweet - aborigines cook jam and jams from them.
- Fuchsia fulgens - originally from Mexico. A well-branching shrub up to 1-1.5 m tall. The leaves are opposite, heart-oval in shape, with a finely serrated margin, reaching 15-20 cm in length and 8-10 cm in width. The stems and leaves are bare (without pubescence). The flowers are collected in apical racemose inflorescences, hanging from the severity of the flowers. Perianth tube up to 10 cm long, bright red, at the base of a violet-bard shade. The free tips of the sepals are 1 cm long, greenish at the ends. Petals shorter than sepals, red. Stamens are long, 1-1.5 cm peek out of the flower. Fruits are edible berries. Flowering occurs almost all summer - from June to August.
- Fuchsia paniculata - its homeland stretches from Mexico to Panama. This is a rare species in culture, the flowers are collected in erect loose brushes. Sepals and purple petals fused into a short tube. The free tips of the sepals are longer than the petals, 2 cm apart. The petals are about 135 cm, the stamens are long with bright pink anthers, the pistil is short. The leaves are opposite, oblong in shape, narrowed at the end, 12-15 cm long, 5-6 cm wide, on short reddish petioles. Bushes about 1 m high.
At home, there are and continue to appear many different varieties of fuchsia, which were born during the process of hybridization. It is difficult to describe all the varieties - there are already more than two thousand of them. Often not even mentioning the origin of these cultivars, the name should feature fuchsia x hybrida, but often only the genus name (Fuchsia) and the cultivar (e.g. Annabel) remain. Hybrid fuchsias are distinguished by the shape and structure of flowers - simple, double, semi-double, and their color scheme - white, pink, red, purple, purple, speckled, etc.
Fuchsia care
Growing and caring for fuchsia at home is not particularly difficult, but problems can arise in winter. In a hot apartment on a warm windowsill, fuchsia will be uncomfortable - plants quickly lose leaves in the lower part of the stems, are severely depleted by spring, then radical pruning is required to rejuvenate the bushes.
Temperature: moderate in summer, optimal temperature for fuchsia growth and flowering 18-24 ° C, at a higher temperature, which, of course, cannot be avoided in summer, fuchsia growth slows down, and flowers wilt faster. At temperatures above 26-30 ° C, fuchsia sheds flowers and loses its lower leaves, so hot summer balconies are not for it. In general, this is an ideal greenhouse plant. Beautiful varietal hybrids are more adapted to indoor content than species specimens, but not enough to do without cool wintering for years. At home, fuchsia winter temperatures drop to + 8-10 ° C, sometimes to + 5 ° C, and for room culture, the ideal wintering temperature is fuchsia 10-12 ° C. This is the key to plant health, successful flowering and longevity, because fuchsias live a very long time, so they are ideal for the formation of bonsai.
See also Fuchsia flower - care and reproduction - in the Popular indoor plants section.
Lighting: fuchsia is very photophilous, while the light should be diffuse, fuchsia can get burns from direct sunlight. Well fuchsia will grow on the eastern windows. He prefers direct sun in the morning or in the evening (before 11 o'clock and after 16 o'clock). In a room with a south window, it can be hot even with shading, so pay attention to the maximum temperature in the room.
Watering: in summer you need to water fuchsia abundantly, the soil should be slightly moist all the time inside the pot, but have time to dry out in the upper part of the soil. If there is no intense heat, fuchsia even suffers some overdraft (no more than one day). With severe overdraft, fuchsia sheds buds and flowers. But waterlogging should be avoided - if the earth is still damp, there is no need to water. To avoid waterlogging, you need to select the soil correctly, and make drainage at the bottom of the pot. Fuchsias do not like watering with hard water, use filtered and/or boiled water, including for spraying.
Important: In winter, watering fuchsia is moderate or limited, depending on the temperature, for example, at 15-18 ° C it is possible once every 10 days, at 5-8 ° C - once a month. Be sure to loosen the soil slightly near the walls of the pot after watering.
Top dressing: from March to September, fuchsia is fed with mineral fertilizer for flowering indoor plants. Wonderful suitable such as: Fertica-suite, Pocon for flowering plants, Uniflor-bud. It is better to do top dressing weekly, but take fertilizer in half a dose. I.e. feed according to the principle - it is better more often, but little by little.
Air humidity: in their homeland, fuchsia grows in a rather humid climate, so they prefer air humidity of about 50-60%. The higher the temperature, the more painful the plants perceive dry air, especially in winter. In summer, fuchsia is periodically sprayed, but usually natural air humidity is sufficient (you only need to spray when there is no rain for a long time). But since October, you can place fuchsia on a pallet with wet pebbles or moss-sphagnum, in the event that the temperature is about 18 ° C or higher. At a lower temperature, it is not necessary to increase the humidity of the air.
Transplant: Fuchsia is transplanted annually in the spring. In general, fuchsia is not demanding on soils, but it should have a slightly acidic reaction: pH = 5.5-6, be quite nutritious and loose (dry quickly). Approximate composition of the substrate: 2 part of the turf land, 1 part of the peat (or leaf land), 1/2 part of the pine bark and 1/2 part of the coarse sand. Another option for the soil mixture: 2 parts of garden land with the addition of compost (from a previously fertilized bed), 1 part of vermiculite, 1 part of coconut substrate, 1/2 part of pine bark. In the pot, it is imperative to pour 4-5 cm of drainage (expanded clay or pieces of wine cork). If a red-white salt coating has formed on the surface of the earth in the pot, it must be removed and filled with fresh earth .
Fuchsia reproduction
Fuchsia is propagated by stem cuttings in spring or summer, which are better rooted in water, planted in pots when the roots grow by about 4-5 cm. You can cuttings throughout the spring-summer season. Cuttings cut the current growth, not yet lignified. You can root fuchsia immediately in a substrate consisting of equal parts of peat, moss sphagnum (cut with scissors) and vermiculite. Not too raw, rather slightly wet. Place the pot in a clear bag, which is tied so that there is a large hole for fresh air to access.
Fuchsia seeds quickly lose their germination, so watch the date on the packaging carefully. But even at the same time, the germination rate can be 20-50%. If you have seeds in autumn or winter, and there is a question of sowing or waiting for spring, then it is better to sow, but immediately, with the advent of seedlings, organize additional illumination with fluorescent lamps.
It is better to sow seeds in a greenhouse (you can use a plastic cake or cake box), in a mixture of peat (or sheet earth) and vermiculite, in equal parts. The optimum temperature is in the range of 18-20 ° C. Seeds are not buried in the soil, they are simply laid out on the surface. Uniformly moistened from sprayer. Seeds are prone to decay, so it is better to spray them directly on the substrate immediately after planting with a weak solution of fungicide (fundazole powder at the very tip of the knife on half a glass of water). It is very important to keep the soil constantly slightly moistened, but be sure to ventilate twice a day for 30 minutes. Fuchsia seedlings appear in about a month, at this time it is important to provide them with a lot of scattered light, not to dry out, and not to moisturize. You can plant seedlings in pots after the second pair of real leaves unfolds. Pots are placed on a tray with wet sphagnum moss, or periodically sprayed. You can start feeding in a month, after planting in pots .
Formation of a fuchsia stamp tree, Svetlana Larsen shares her experience (svph):
The first year we form the main trunk. To do this, in early spring, when fuchsia begins to grow intensively, choose a young, possibly long and direct branch. The variety must not be ampelee. From the ampel plant, the tree will not work. After rooting, we plant it in a large pot (since it has to grow quickly) and tie it to a long stick. I advise you to choose a stick according to the future desired height - it is easier to measure the growth of a tree, and you immediately have an idea of what height you want.
Further, for several months, it is necessary to regularly tie as you grow and remove all side shoots and flowers. When the branch begins to approach the end of the stick, then you can leave the upper shoots and flowers. After reaching the desired height, we pinch the top and begin to form lateral shoots. In the first year, this will completely fail. And it doesn't matter. Let the rest of the summer grow and bloom as she wants. Only constantly remove the side shoots below the mark that we have chosen for ourselves as a starting point. This can be a height of 50 cm, or higher.
You can form a crown not round, but pyramidal. It already tastes. It is much more important to provide good conditions for the winter. It is advisable to put fuchsia in a cold basement. But do not forget to water occasionally, since the earthen lump should not dry out. But in the spring it is necessary to cut off very much, in the full sense leaving only hemp from lateral shoots. And then the formation of the future skeleton begins: we cut out all the branches that grow "wrong." Branches should grow evenly in all directions, not interfere with each other. Usually, in the second summer, a strongly growing variety completely forms a "skeleton." Well, all subsequent years, the care consists in a strong spring pruning of all shoots on the "skeleton."
Fuchsia pests
Most often, fuchsia is harmed by spider mites and whiteflies.
Mite damage can be determined by irregular yellow spots on the leaves, puncture points that are visible on the leaf lumen, a thin cobweb (sometimes it is visible only with a magnifying glass) on the back of the leaf and in internodes. White, tiny, dandruff-like skins can also be spotted on the underside of the leaf. Fuchsia affected by a tick must be treated with acaricidal drugs (Apollo, Vermitek, Nissoran, etc.) It is quite problematic to moisten the leaves on both sides with high quality, there will certainly remain a nook where the chemical solution did not get, but it is very important to achieve 100% treatment of leaves on both sides. Therefore, it is easier to prepare a solution in a bucket, and dip the plant there "head down," hold it for 2-3 minutes. Let dry, do not rinse with clean water. Sometimes, if you can't get rid of the tick, you have to cut the plant hard to make it easier to process the rest.
Whitefly is found in the form of white small flies, for which fuchsia is like a passion tree, extremely attractive. On the reverse side, they lay small white eggs in a ring clutch. The easiest way to fight whiteflies is with systemic insecticides - actara or confidor. Thoroughly moisten the soil with a solution, and wash the aboveground under a warm shower. Usually 2 treatments (watering) are enough to get rid of pests.
Problems of growing fuchsia
Fuchsia cannot be called an unpretentious plant - it puts forward too many conditions to florists captivated by its beauty. The most important thing is wintering. If fuchsia is not allowed to rest for 4-5 months, it inevitably degenerates and dies. Who can solve this problem as best they can. You can place it in a cellar or basement (no lighting is needed at 5 ° C, and shoots are cut off, leaving only skeletal branches), you can place fuchsia on a heated glazed balcony, you can fence off the window sill in the room with glass or plastic wrap, but the temperature on the windowsill will be 10-12 ° C, if you have wooden windows, with plastic windows, the temperature will remain high. And also as an option - a fenced corner on the landing (many in the entrance in winter are more than cool).
Another option to preserve the plant is to prune the bush in the fall, root the cuttings, and throw away the old plant until it dies itself. But this is natural not to allow to grow a beautiful stamp, but our grandchildren bonsai.
Fuchsia can shed flowers if her pot is flipped the other side to the light or put in a new place, so the gaining buds and flowering fuchsia are not rearranged from place to place. Fuchsia also blooms poorly, discards color if it is hot summer, and with excessive or insufficient watering.
Each spring, fuchsia is cut to about 1/3 of the shoot length, which stimulates the formation of new buds. During the summer, fuchsia can be repeatedly pinched to form the desired plant shape.