It's back to the fuchsia
I was just sorting through another box of old files and things. I confess that I have way too many of them still in hiding from my move from Manahattan but, occasionally, I'll get inspired and tackle another. It's very cold out there this week so there's some downtime from winter gardening and little excuse not to do one while I'm hanging around indoors, after all. Inside this box was a small photo album. It housed a few dozen prints of fuchsias I'd encountered on various meanderings. The botanical garden at Niagara in Canada, the Jardin botanique de Montréal, the greenhouses of Longwood Gardens, Golden Gate Park's Fuchsia Dell, White Flower Farm in Litchfield, Connecticut, to name a few of the sightings preserved.
The last additions were memories of an installation in the Orangerie at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Longwood was always a favorite visit because it was almost in our backyard from New York City. A couple of hours, and ZIP, we were there. We went several times a year with the changing seasons and changing displays. Sometimes with a purpose. Other times, just because. A few times we even looped back to the City through Kennet Square from week-end expeditions to Central PA.
I remember this visit well. It left quite an impression on me. From the notes I scribbled on the back the prints, it was "Summer, 1997". The visit was probably random but, boy, was it memorable. Hedges of Fuchsia 'Gartenmeister Bonstedt' were planted along the high windows and snaked around the columns at the south end of the Orangerie. The effect was brilliant and glorious. Of course there were fuchsias at Fuchsias in the City but this display was something else. I felt like my soul was in heaven.
In the old DuPont greenhouses, sadly ripped out a couple of years ago to make way for the extensive re-arrangements and new conservatory, was another great find. Fuchsia 'Lord Beaconsfield' is a very sturdy old cultivar that holds up extraordinarily well to the heat and humidly of a Philadelphia summer. In August of every year enormous, spectacular baskets of it are hung from the heights of the Orangerie and mop-headed standards are planted along the beds.
First débuted in 1873, this fuchsia actually won a certificate of merit from the Royal Horticultural Society in 1876 under the simple description after the breeder, but not yet with a proper name, as 'Laing's Hybrid'. By the next year it had acquired an august title — 'Earl of Beaconsfield'— and again met with more acclaim The earl was Benjamin Disraeli, the British Prime Minister, of course. Which probably helped in catching the RHS's attention for a second year running. Generally, the hybrid has made its way in fuchsia society addressed as 'Lord Beaconsfield', as earls are usually want to be. There's also a reason it's been gracing gardens for so long. Its mother is reportedly the indefatigable Fuchsia fulgens of Southern Mexico, which goes a long way in explaining its sturdiness.
Along with the glow of memory, the colors in the photos have warmed and faded a little. I've scanned these few but I still have all my original negatives in another box somewhere. At some point I'll have them all professionally digitized. Another day, another project. This little album is the end of an era. It was probably after these prints were inserted that the first digital camera came into my hands. I haven't really looked back. Digital is easier. And certainly a lot cheaper. Still, there was something satisfying about holding an actual album with actual photos in your hands and not just clicking on icons in finder windows.