Just in case anyone was interested, I left them to it. For a while they all looked like dead sticks as ask the leaves came off but then I noticed new buds appearing. We just got back from 2 weeks away to discover:
It seems you were growing them as standards then ? If you are, you need to pick everything off the trunk just leaving the top growth. Then pinch out the side shoots. They should be looking like this by now if you want them as little bush types.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
They do appear to have a very thick stem so I reckon they were grown for standards. If you don't want them as standards I would chop the top off to about a foot high. And keep pinching the side shoots out. If you do want them as standards you need to remove the bottom shoots leaving all the shoots at the top and pinch the top shoots out drastically.
'Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement' - Helen Keller
Really should have been potted on into slightly larger pots, if not standards pinch out the tops to encourage them bush, shouldn't have been planted straight into the ground, shouldn't have had flowers on them.
I'm not sure what standards are in the context of fuschias, but what I'm after is a nice row perhaps 2 feet tall of intertwined plants.
I'm not too bothered if they fill in at the bottom as a hedge or not. If they do, great; if they don't I'll plant some small border plants in-between.
So, do I want standards or sonething else? I didn't want to prune them when they were so small and struggling but now they are doing ok, it's time to get the shears out?
A standard is a pompom of growth at the top of a bare stem. If you want them to branch out and intermingle just nip out the last buds n teh tallest stems as this will encourage growth lower down and then keep them watered.
I grow my fuchsias on the north side of the house where they get plenty of light but very little direct sun as, except for the hedging kinds such as magellanica, fuchsias easily get hot and bothered.
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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and be careful not to over water.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
So it looks like I lucked out this time. Phew.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
They should be looking like this by now if you want them as little bush types.
I'm not too bothered if they fill in at the bottom as a hedge or not. If they do, great; if they don't I'll plant some small border plants in-between.
So, do I want standards or sonething else? I didn't want to prune them when they were so small and struggling but now they are doing ok, it's time to get the shears out?
I grow my fuchsias on the north side of the house where they get plenty of light but very little direct sun as, except for the hedging kinds such as magellanica, fuchsias easily get hot and bothered.
If you want to try one from a cutting choose a piece that has 3 leaves coming out of the top, they are usually two , but sometimes you can get three.
Is it ok to do this in summer, or shall I wait?