Fuschia's

renegade

Hi everyone.
I got those free Fuschia's in the post there are 10 of them, they are growing beautifully in their little pots.
My question is... Is it too late to plant them out either in the garden or in pots,I see everyones Fuschias flowering lovely right now but mine are only small. I don't want them to die in the winter with the frosts,would they be okay if I just keep transferring them into bigger pots as they grow and storing them in a spare bedroom until next spring?
Yes, you have guessed it..I am new to this!

Farway

Not knowing which varieties you have it is hard to advise fully, if they are hardy ones then planting out now will be fine

If they are not hardy then I would use pots this year and store indoors overwinter

if you use pots, lookup "vine weevil" now and be prepared to drench the pots in autumn or you will have zero fuchsia next spring once the grubs have eaten the roots for you

olly300

The main issue you have at the moment is the heat as you will always be watering them. Personally I would use self-watering pots but transfer them into larger pots anyway.

In winter before the first hard frost - remove any flowers from the plants and cut the plants down. By that I mean cut the branches back a bit. Then store them in your spare bedroom. However you need to ensure that you don't have your central heating on full blast in that room.

I keep my fushias outside covered in horticulture fleece on a West facing wall near my house in winter. I find that the flowers and leaves drop of and make a mess, plus some of the weaker branches will snap off if I don't cut the plants down.

And ignore Farway scare stories. I've not had an attack of vine weevils yet and have never drenched my plants in anything. However its a pest that you must keep your eyes looking out for if you have outdoor potted plants.

Joly_Roger

I'd definitely plant them, it's still June, you've got quite a few months until the frosts. In small pots they won't have any room to grow and will dry out very quickly. If they're not hardy you could just treat them as bedding plants and enjoy them until the frosts or you could dig them up and overwinter them before the first frosts, like Olly300 suggests.

meanmarie

I have always found that fuchsias in general can be propogated quite easily and this is what I tend to do if unsure of hardiness....you can then grow on your 'babies' in winter and have new stock to replace the ones that die off. I have also had reasonable success with cutting back plants and covering them with a few inches of bark chippings or such.

Marie