Fushias in hanging basket

maggiecon

Hi

I am planting some large head fushias for hanging baskets for the house and was trying to buy them on line, most come in plants of three, but I have been reading up on planting hanging baskets and they say you should plant five fushia plants in a basket. does this mean i need to buy two sets off three plants for each basket? Seems a bit excessive

Sorry if i sound like a numpty never gardened before

Farway

It depends on the size of basket obviously, but reckon 3 will do fine

They are easily rooted from cuttings anyway, so once they get growing just nip out a few shoots [you will need to do this anyway to make them bushy] and lo & behold, your 3 plants are now 15 with time & luck

Mortal

A little trick I do with the kids with plants like Fuschia's is nip out the growing point and pop it into a little tot glass of water on the kitchen windowsil. Within a couple of weeks, there are enough roots on it to pot up, and by summer they'll be flowering along with all their mothers

peter_the_piper

If you want a bushy basket, choose a trailing variety such as Dark eyes, La Campanella and Marinka. These are naturally lax and will trail over the edge very well. Normal varieties will not trail and therefore not make a good basket. Pinch the tip of each stem when it has 3 sets of leaves, do this about 3 times and that should be enough. one tip is that a single flowered fuchsia will take about 6-8 weeks to flower after the last pinch and doubled 10-12 weeks so you will know in advance when the basket should be flowering.Water as necessary and feed fortnightly.

heynonnynonny

peter_the_piper wrote: »

If you want a bushy basket, choose a trailing variety such as Dark eyes, La Campanella and Marinka. These are naturally lax and will trail over the edge very well. Normal varieties will not trail and therefore not make a good basket. Pinch the tip of each stem when it has 3 sets of leaves, do this about 3 times and that should be enough. one tip is that a single flowered fuchsia will take about 6-8 weeks to flower after the last pinch and doubled 10-12 weeks so you will know in advance when the basket should be flowering.Water as necessary and feed fortnightly.

Thanks for that tip, I have dark eyes ready to do a basket, last year I did it they didn't look much but now I know, pinch them out!!

peter_the_piper

Always glad to be of help.