@Bede - mine looks very similar to yours, I have no idea what it's called as it was there when I bought the house. It's old enough to have survived the beast from the east and last year it sailed through some very late frosts.
It also laughed in the face of this year's drought, it seems to be a very tough plant.
Every year in early spring I cut it back to about 20cm from the ground, and it grows to a good 2m tall. I have it as a 15m-long hedge in my front garden. Fantastic fuchsia that flowers for months.
borgadr said: Every year in early spring I cut it back to about 20cm from the ground, and it grows to a good 2m tall. I have it as a 15m-long hedge in my front garden. Fantastic fuchsia that flowers for months.
The "Kent" in your personal description is helpful. It lets me relate a bit to your climate. How close to the coast and how high up the weald, and chalk, clay or sand would be more meaningful, but you've already given me more information than most posters.
location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand. "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
BGS geology viewer gives me Bedrock geology Chester Formation - Sandstone, pebbly (gravelly). Sedimentary bedrock formed between 250 and 247.1 million years ago during the Triassic period. Superficial deposits Glaciofluvial Deposits, Mid Pleistocene - Sand and gravel. Sedimentary superficial deposit formed between 860 and 116 thousand years ago during the Quaternary period.
So in a nutshell, it's sandstone, sand and gravel all the way down!
I expect the BGS data is rather too much detail, but it's sometimes hard to know what people's expectations are.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
You had already given me more information with "Kent" than most do. I don't really expect much, but soil type and microclimate are interesting to me.
It's nice, but only nice, to know that you are more or less on the same soil as me.
For those interested, here's a pic of my front garden fuchsia. I prune in the spring to control its width, but let it grow as high as it likes. It has climbed inside the conifer to almost 4m. Protected from frost and supported from bending.
location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand. "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
borgadr said: Every year in early spring I cut it back to about 20cm from the ground, and it grows to a good 2m tall. I have it as a 15m-long hedge in my front garden. Fantastic fuchsia that flowers for months.
The "Kent" in your personal description is helpful. It lets me relate a bit to your climate. How close to the coast and how high up the weald, and chalk, clay or sand would be more meaningful, but you've already given me more information than most posters.
Sorry Bede, I missed your question which is why I'm responding late. We're close to Ashford, heading out towards Folkestone. So low level weald at the foot of the Downs, soil is slightly acidic and on the clay side of loamy, even though the bedrock deep down seems to be chalk (the water in my well, 5m depth, is alkaline). We're 10 minutes from the coast so very mild in winter (it can be raining here when it snows a few miles away), and in a bit if a rain shadow between the Kent and Sussex Downs.
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It also laughed in the face of this year's drought, it seems to be a very tough plant.
Every year in early spring I cut it back to about 20cm from the ground, and it grows to a good 2m tall. I have it as a 15m-long hedge in my front garden. Fantastic fuchsia that flowers for months.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
Bedrock geology
Chester Formation - Sandstone, pebbly (gravelly). Sedimentary bedrock formed between 250 and 247.1 million years ago during the Triassic period.
Superficial deposits
Glaciofluvial Deposits, Mid Pleistocene - Sand and gravel. Sedimentary superficial deposit formed between 860 and 116 thousand years ago during the Quaternary period.
You had already given me more information with "Kent" than most do. I don't really expect much, but soil type and microclimate are interesting to me.
It's nice, but only nice, to know that you are more or less on the same soil as me.
For those interested, here's a pic of my front garden fuchsia. I prune in the spring to control its width, but let it grow as high as it likes. It has climbed inside the conifer to almost 4m. Protected from frost and supported from bending.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."