Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Plant sale dates

The 2012 Marine Hills Garden Club plant sale will be May 4 for pre-sale orders and May 5 for the open/public plant sale.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Canceling the January meeting

Due to severe weather forecasts, we will not have our January meeting.

Please let Debbie know if you plan to attend the February 1 Chinook General Meeting and Flower Show. We need two clerks to help, and we need to submit 8 - 10 designs and at least one craft. The program is a presentation about hardy ferns.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Hardy Fuchsias

In preparation for our club's 2012 growing project, here is an essay I wrote about hardy fuchsias. We plan to select a variety for each member to grow and report about.

Every Puget Sound region garden can benefit from the addition of some hardy fuchsia plants. There is a size, color, and type flower to suit everyone. The small (shorter or low-growing) varieties are particularly useful placed near the front of a border or scattered in a small garden bed.  They won’t outgrow the space or require pruning to control size. Planting three or more (an odd number) of the same variety provides repetition for unity in garden design.  Hardy fuchsias also perform well in a pot, as a single plant or in a grouping of other plants.

Very hardy (or truly hardy) fuchsias may be labeled as VH or H3. Hardy fuchsias may be labeled at H or H2. The very hardy varieties will bloom from June to November. The hardy varieties will bloom by July.

A few of the many great smaller (shorter) varieties of very hardy upright fuchsias are Golden Herald, Santa Claus, Rufus, Pat’s Dream, Army Nurse, and Drame.  Golden Herald has beautiful golden foliage, and its single flowers have red sepals and purple corollas. Santa Claus is a prolific bloomer, and its flowers have red sepals and white corollas. The large flowers of Rufus have sepals and corollas in a beautiful shade of coral-red. Pat’s Dream has lots of single flowers with red sepals and violet corollas. Army Nurse’s double flowers have red sepals and purple corollas. Drame’s foliage is a golden color and its semi-double flowers have scarlet sepals and violet corollas. All of these have been strong performers in my Puget Sound garden for at least four years.

Plant hardy fuchsias in the spring after danger of frost (generally early May). Before planting in the ground, acclimatize them for a week, giving them a little more sun each day. Select locations with reasonably well-drained soil in part sun or full sun (preferred by most of the hardy fuchsias). Plant fuchsias a little deeper than they were in their original pots. Add a balanced slow-release fertilizer.

Water your fuchsias deeply once a week. Water them in the morning. Fuchsia will be happy to receive some additional slow-release fertilizer a couple times during the summer. Cut branches freely to add to flower arrangements.

Leave most of the bare branches on the plants to provide some winter protection. You may trim a little for neatness. When new growth begins to appear in the spring, trim to within a few inches from the ground. The plants will generate all the new growth needed for a beautiful show in summer and fall.