For those looking for vibrant and eye-catching flowers to add to their gardens this year on a budget, fuchsias could be perfect.
As long as you follow a few simple steps, you can get vibrant fuchsias that fills pots or hanging baskets for just £1.50, a gardening expert has explained.
The gardener, known to his more than 75,000 TikTok followers as @gardening.with.ish, said that in the late spring and summer months “fuchsia grows like wildfire”.
He added that you can get nice, big pots of fuchsias, or even full hanging baskets – and pointed out that he bought his fuchsia plant from Morrisons for just £1.50. Ish explained: “Fuchsia come in two varieties, bush variety and trailing. They like the same thing, they love a good well-drained soil and a good amount of sun, too.”
To help your fuchsia thrive you need to ensure they don’t dry them out and this will cause them stress, and they like to stay “consistently moist”. A “good water in the summer every day” will keep the plants nice and happy, Ish said.
The gardener added: “The cool thing about fuchsia is that these will carry on flowering all the way from now until September.”
Another important step when it comes to keeping fuchsia flowering all the way through the summer, is to pinch off any that have flowered and spent.
“By stunting that energy there, it will focus on more flowers and keep it going. If you want to give it an even bigger boost, go for something like tomato feed and that will drive them absolutely crazy,” Ish told followers.
The expert said that while one supermarket bush fuchsia will fill a pot out by following his steps, you will need two or three trailing ones to fill out a hanging basket. “You really can create a beautiful garden on a budget,” he added.
When asked if the flowers will come back year-on-year, Ish said: “The bush yes, but the trailing may need frost protection as it’s not hardy.”
Fuchsia can be susceptible to pests like aphids, fuchsia gall mite, fuchsia flea beetle, capsid bug, and vine weevil, as well as diseases such as fuchsia rust, grey moulds, and honey fungus.
The Royal Horticultural Society explained that you should “check your fuchsias regularly” and keep the ground moist but not soggy, adding: “Fuchsias in containers and hanging baskets will require more (daily) watering than those planted in the ground.”