Just back from hols, daughter in charge of watering - oh dear! My poor fuchsias have not been watered and now all dead leaves. If I cut back now will they survive, if only to keep over winter, I'm not expecting flowers!
Scratch the bark low down with your fingernail.if it's green underneath, they're alive. If it's brown, they may still sprout from the base in the spring. Either way I wouldn't prune them until the spring. Are they frost hardy? If not, protect them from frost.
I think the reason ‘they’ say don’t prune down until Spring is that the hardy outside types keep their leaves for a while and that is a bit of frost protection. If they already have lost the leaves, I can’t see what difference it makes, Ive cut some long straggly bits down in autumn and they seem to pop up in Spring.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
It does protect from frost. I left some fuchsias outside last winter because we only got to just below freezing the previous year. Unfortunately we had a -8C this year and that saw off the more delicate fuchsias but, after waiting patiently and watering them, they did eventually grow back from wee shoots right at the base. Then it was safe to prune back to those shoots and feed and re-pot. They've done very well this year.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
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Are they frost hardy? If not, protect them from frost.
Agree with B3 about waiting till spring to see if they grow back and protecting them from frost.