Saturday, May 13, 2023
Just in time for Mother's Day, I was interviewed about hardy Fuchsias by Lorene Edwards Forkner for the Seattle Times' Pacific Northwest Magazine….➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — fuchsias | hardy fuchsias | interviews
Wednesday, November 29, 2023
With the frosts, it’s time….➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — cultivation | fuchsias | winter
Saturday, January 06, 2024
That’s it! Some fold up the Yuletide festivities early but it ain’t over until the Three Kings sing. So thanks for singing along to the The Twelve Fuchsias of Christmas 2023. Hope you had a joyful holiday season and may your gardens flourish in 2024!➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — fuchsias | holiday | christmas
Saturday, July 08, 2023
Happy Birthday to Domenico Vandelli who was born July 8, 1735 in Padua. Vandelli was a noted Italian naturalist and botanist, originally from Padua, who worked primarily in Portugal. On the recommendation of Linnaeus, he was brought to Lisbon in 1764 by the great Portuguese reformer….➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — botanists | fuchsias
Monday, July 10, 2023
What’s flowering at The Fuchsietum? Fuchsia 'Campo Thilco'. This hybrid is resistant to the ravages of the Brazilian fuchsia gall mite, Auculops fuchsiae, as well as fuchsia rust (Pucciniastrum epilobii)….➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — botanists | fuchsias | species | spotlight | gall mites | rust
Friday, January 27, 2023
Venezualian-American botanist, Julian Alfred Steyermark was born today on Jan. 27, 1909. His long career included the Field Museum of Chicago, the Jardín Botánico de Caracas of the Universidad Central of Venezuela and….➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — botanists | fuchsias | species
Friday, January 06, 2023
That’s it for the season. Some fold up the festivities early but it ain’t really over until the Three Kings sing. So thanks for singing along to The Twelve Fuchsias of Christmas again this year, Hope you had a joyful Christmas and a Happy New Year. May your gardens flourish in 2023!➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — fuchsias | holiday | christmas
Wednesday, November 30, 2022
The portrait-carte, sometimes portrait carte-de-visite and usually known inaccurately in English as just a carte-de-visite, was a type of photographic visiting card patented by the Parisian photographer, Eugène Disdéri (1819-1889), in 1853. Based on the indispensable visiting cards of the….➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — art | fuchsias | history
Thursday, October 28, 2021
When Carol Gubler of Little Brook Fuchsias in the UK asked “What’s your favorite fuchsia?” on Zoom today, I had to answer that it’s usually “Love the one you’re with” with me and fuchsias. I’d be hard pressed to name just one and not all. Then it dawned on me….➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — cultivars | fuchsias | fuchsias spotlight
Tuesday, December 29, 2020
British botanist William Botting Hemsley was born on this day, December 29, 1843, in the village of East Hoathley with Halland, East Sussex. Hemsley spent most of his professional career at the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew….➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — botanists | fuchsias | species
Tuesday, December 15, 2020
Fuchsia ‘Cardinal’ is another classic American cultivar released by Evans & Reeves Nurseries of Los Angeles in 1938. It has long internodes and likes to spread wide so give it room. It's also winter hardy in the usual places that fuchsias are hardy….➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — cultivars | fuchsia spotlight | fuchsias | hardies | plants
Friday, September 04, 2020
Have you ever been to PowellsWood Garden? It's a three-acre gem of a botanical garden hidden in a quiet neighborhood in Federal Way, Wash. Being in the Pacific Northwest there are, of course, lots of fuchsias planted about display beds in the beautiful garden rooms. I was on trail of just those fuchsias….➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — botanical gardens | fuchsias | pnw | washington
Monday, November 11, 2019
The fuchsias were brushed by frost a few days ago. Ordinarily this might be the end but I was struck by the faded beauty of the blossoms, muted by the cold with shades of their former selves. Some have taken on almost gem-like translucent tones of amethyst….➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — autumn | fall | flowers | fuchsias | winter
Wednesday, November 01, 2017
November. It’s the last gasp of the growing season in the garden. The potted fuchsias are still alive and even blooming in the waning sun. Jack Frost’s chilly breath is falling down your neck, though. It’s coming, Winter’s coming. Forecasts of cruel freezes are coming in from the weatherman. Reality. Denial won’t keep it way. What to do…➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — fuchsias | gardening | horticulture | seasons
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Fuchsia berries are very edible. For some reason this fact often surprises people. Granted some are better tasting than others. Some much better. This fact is again not surprising as most fuchsias were bred for their flowers than than…➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — fruit | fuchsias | species
Saturday, February 11, 2017
Fireworks! The Chinese New Year certainly comes in with some big bangs and more than a few snap, crackle and pops. But it’s the Chinese Lantern Festival marks the last day of traditional Chinese New Year celebrations. Its bright lanterns symbolize the letting go of past selves…➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — fuchsias | holiday | new year
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
What do the great earthquake of San Francisco and fuchsias have in common? Why Alice Eastwood, of course. In case you somehow don’t already know her, you should! Eastwood was the pioneering botanist who spent the whole of her long career at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco…➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — botanical gardens | botanists | botany | fuchsias | history
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
There are quite a number of public gardens and other worthwhile parks—big, small, and tiny even—in the greater New York area. Of course, not all of these gems are dedicated just to the fuchsia… but they're still thoroughly interesting for the visit…➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — botanical gardens | botanists | fuchsias | history | new york | science
Saturday, October 06, 2018
Ex aequatoria aliquid novum and this time it's a new hummingbird. A little stunner newly named Oreotrochilus cyanolaemus, or the blue-throated hillstar, was only just spotted in 2017 in that hotbed of biodiversity and speciation, Ecuador….➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — fuchsias | hummingbirds | science | species
Saturday, February 14, 2015
I know. I know. Fuchsia cordifolia Benth. is really a synonym of Fuchsia splendens Zucc. A couple of botanists got their descriptions crossed and it’s always, “First come, first served”. But it’s the Feast of Saint Valentine today and the old heartleaf fuchsia...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — botany | fuchsias | holiday | science | species
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Fuchsia ‘Venus Victrix’ has small white-tubed flowers with white sepals tipped in an apple green. Almost tiny flowers compared to most other fuchsias. Not bad looking but ‘Venus Victrix’ is also a very finicky plant. Hard, yes. Yet the Fuchsia ‘Venus Victrix’, true to its name, is a classic….➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — fuchsias | history | spotlight
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Like a small explosion of fireworks, a panicle of Fuchsia arborescens flowers bursts brightly from the tip of a branch. Wishing everyone a great start to the coming seasons this New Year’s Day, as well as another fabulous 365 days filled with the wonders and promises of nature...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — fuchsias | holiday | new year | species
Friday, August 01, 2014
Perhaps the most significant heraldic fuchsia grows on the Isle of Man. In the tradition of the great plant badges of the British Isles, such the rose of England or the thistle of Scotland, the fuchsia of hedges...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — fuchsias | heraldry | history
Monday, September 01, 2014
For the only other heraldic fuchsia that I know of, you have to go to an island much further afloat than Man. Very much further. Afloat in the South Pacific, in fact. But there, as in Flowers and Heraldry...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — fuchsias | heraldry | history
Sunday, June 15, 2014
I’ve tried and tried to find many. Any at all, even. Despite their great popularity in the greenhouse and the garden from their first introduction into cultivation in England in the 1790s, fuchsias are curiously virtually nonexistent on heraldic shields...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — fuchsias | heraldry | history
Monday, March 17, 2014
Since the depths of January, there hasn’t been much new going on outside. It's been basically the same pattern. Freeze. Snow. Freeze. Snow. Freeze. The over-wintering pots of fuchsias are… well… still impatiently over-wintering and...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — fuchsias | winter | spring | propagation
Thursday, February 27, 2014
It seems like this winter just won’t end. Snow, snow, freezing polar vortices, and then more snow. Just when I thought we had finally rounded the frozen bend this past week, the temperatures are scheduled to drop...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — fuchsias | species | winter
Sunday, January 12, 2014
I have some good news to share with ardent fuchsiaphiles everywhere. Other botany and horticulture nuts as well. Heck, with everybody. I’m having a hard time keeping my excitement in check...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — botany | fuchsias | science | species
Friday, January 17, 2014
My, how times flies. That eminent botanist, Leonhart Fuchs, turns five hundred and thirteen today. He was, in case you’ve been distracted the whole long time, the German physician, botanist and professor after whom the genus Fuchsia...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — botanists | botany | fuchsias | history | science
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Something funny happened in the garden this morning. No, the squirrels didn’t leave a fruit basket on the back step with knock and a nice note apologizing for having gnawed off the lily buds...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — cultivars | fuchsias | hortulus fuchsiarum | propagation
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
I’m in love with the greenhouses at Longwood. Have I said that enough? Well, maybe. But let me say it again anyway! I’m in love with the greenhouses at Longwood. Especially in the summer…➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — botanical gardens | fuchsias | greenhouses | summer
Monday, April 15, 2013
The urban fuchsias live in the City. In a small garden. In a small apartment garden. With no greenhouse and precious little space to overwinter plants indoors, lots of them have to be sacrificed to reality...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — fuchsias | hortulus fuchsiarum | spring | summer
Saturday, April 08, 2023
I do remember the first time I came across Fuchsia ‘Gartenmeister Bonstedt’. It was at a rather large, and I thought at the time, rather nice nursery. I was still mostly a teenager then. Fuchsias I already knew but...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — cultivars | fuchsias | spotlight
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
On warmer days and nights that don't go below breezing, I sometimes set some of the plants back outside to take in the spa of cool, refreshing air. Right now...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — fuchsias | hortulus fuchsiarum | winter
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Judging from the way botanists usually devise new names, you would think that Section Schufia, one of the twelve into which the genus Fuchsia is divided, was named to honor a famous and eminent botanist by the name of...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — fuchsias | species
Sunday, October 07, 2012
It’s only the first week of October and tweets from all over arrive in seemingly rapid escalation. Freezes tonight from Missouri to Chicago. Frosts expected already in…➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — fall | fuchsias | hortulus fuchsiarum
Sunday, April 15, 2012
If you happen to be lucky enough find yourself in sunny southern California on the fuchsia trail—or any gardening trail as a matter of fact—a visit to Weidners’ Nursery in Encinitas…➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — cultivars | fuchsias | spotlight
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
About a month ago and a half ago, after the middle of December, I took some cuttings from the Fuchsia regia ssp. reitzii I have growing out in the garden, If you remember...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — fuchsias | propagation
Friday, December 30, 2011
Despite that freak snowstorm that really walloped the Northeast corner of the United States a few days before Halloween this year, it’s actually been a long, slow slide...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — fuchsias | propagation
