Tatty Fushchia bushes

Apodemus

In defence of F. magellanica, it is a remarkable plant when growing wild in its native range on wind-blasted South Atlantic shorelines and is well-suited to the more maritime parts of UK.  I agree that it is not great as a hedging plant, but as an individual bush in a damp, cold environment like I have in Highland Scotland, there is little that can rival it as a plant-and-forget shrub for the back corners of the garden.  It (nearly) always comes back from below ground after even the hardest of winters and will cope equally well with either neglect or brutal pruning and still come up smiling.

twopenny

If it is F. magellanica then it's virtually indestructable. I had a random self seeded on by a house wall, I tried to make it a standard, I tried to dig it up, I tried to poison it but still it kept coming back.

There is a pink version that is tough but not as invasive as the red one. Still a useful plant to provide continuous flowering. I had some in a hedge and use the hedge trimmers on it with no ill effect and it's soft wood to work with and dispose of so not difficult to maintain.

fatbelly

I have a fuchsia bush that I attack with a hedgetrimmer each autumn. It has always come back (so far). I would mention that it can be slow in the spring. A neighbour of mine dug his out thinking it was dead when his (and mine) were still twigs with everything else coming into leaf. A few weeks later mine took off and had a normal summer.

I did notice this year that it seemed to lose its leaves early so we'll see what happens in the spring.