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Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Monday, July 14, 2008

Fuchsia

Taken in my garden.

ABC Gardening
Plant Profile: Fuchsia

Traits: Sun, Shade, Hedge, Container, Birds

This genus belongs to the evening primrose (Onagraceae) family and comprises around 100 species of shrubs and small to medium-sized trees.

They can be evergreen or deciduous, spreading or climbing, and all come from Central and South America, except for a few that are native to New Zealand and Tahiti. With their stunning flowers and lush foliage, fuchsias offer tremendous ornamental qualities, and are ideal for hedges, containers, and hanging baskets, or trained on espaliers.

Many thousands of hybrids and cultivars have been raised. In their native habitat, the American species are pollinated by hummingbirds.

Flowering Season: Summer, Autum, Spring

Appearance

Mostly climbing or spreading shrubs, fuchsias have deep green, heavily veined leaves that grow in whorls on the stems.

The pendulous flowers have long tubes with flared sepals and often contrastingly colored petals, mostly in shades of red, white, pink, and purple, as well as bicolored.

The garden hybrids usually have rounded flowers with a skirt of large sepals around an often double corolla. Fleshy berries, usually with many seeds, follow the flowers.

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