Forum home Problem solving
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Slightly uprooted hardy fuchsia

Hello!
Complete amateur here, so excuse the silly questions!

So the problem is that I have a hardy fuschia that got uprooted by heavy rain a couple of years ago. At the time I was literally leaving for a holiday the very same day so I opted for a short-term solution: straighten it as much as possible and add extra soil and flimsy posts to keep it in soil. It’s been left as it was as it seemed happy enough and life events meant we couldn’t focus on the garden. 

We are now trying to tidy up this small garden and realised that the fuschia was actually leaning forward quite a bit instead of growing straight up.

The question would be: how deep can roots go, and how hard/feasible would it be to dig it up in order to replant it more upright? Some pictures attached. Could it be also drastically cut back to make the job easier (1/3 recently pruned on the pictures)?

Thanks for your help!

Posts

  • BiljeBilje Posts: 811
    Certainly not a silly question. 
    Long established fushias will have deep roots so I personally wouldn't attempt to dig it up to replant it. Fushias aren't pruned like lots of other shrubs i.e. The third a year. My hardy fuchsias are cut back to about 6 inches in March, seems drastic but I've never lost one yet, and some, depending on variety will make 3 feet of growth over the Summer. I'm  in NE England. That pruning will also give you room to see what the unearthed roots are doing. You could gradually build up the soil around it, I'd also give it a feed, blood fish and bone (BFB) or chicken manure pellets etc. 
    You could leave one stem that has shoots already, let them grow to a few inches and take those soft shoots as cuttings. 
    Good luck and happy gardening. 
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    I would prune off the two thick branches that are leaning forwards, right down to the base, as a minimum, and maybe the rest as well. It'll grow back better than ever.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • Thank you both for your replies! I had seen that fuchsia could be cut quite significantly but wasn’t quite sure how much! I think I’ll take the advice to cut the front branches and prune the rest down some more :)
Sign In or Register to comment.