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Great Plants this Month Autumn

Fuchsia ‘Whiteknights Pearl’ AGM

Louse Sims

Last week it felt as if we had been plunged straight into winter, but today is more like a normal October day with the promise of some warm and sunny days ahead, and as I venture out, I am reassured that the garden still has plenty to offer.

Since mid-summer, when ‘Whiteknights Pearl’ started into flower, I have been increasingly taken with this beautiful, award-winning fuchsia, and it really comes into its own in the autumn – partly through lack of competition but also because, for once, I put in a little bit of thought when it came to choosing its neighbours. A fuchsia flowering on its own at this time of the year can be a lonely sight!

Fuchsias are hugely popular garden plants and over the years thousands of cultivars have been introduced, many of them tender or borderline hardy. For a long time, I didn’t really pay them much attention because I was put off by some of their more garish colour combinations; so how did I make my choice? Well, it was made for me: if you see one fuchsia in a nursery which sells predominantly herbaceous perennials, you can be fairly sure it’s a good one! 

Despite its delicate looking blooms, this is a hardy and resilient plant, yet refined, with gently arching stems to about a metre. The slender, soft pink flowers are graceful, and they have a long season. Pruning is straightforward – cut back all the stems to ground level in early spring – and pests and diseases are few and far between. The only thing I would question is perhaps the choice of name for a pink fuchsia!

NB Louise has published a beautifully produced book of her plant profiles – A Plant for Each Week of the Year. It costs £9.99 inc P & P and is for sale in our online shop here.

More NB If you’d like a bit more gardening chitchat from the3growbags, please type your email address here and we’ll send you a new post every Saturday morning.

By the3growbags

We're three sisters who love gardening, plants and even the science of horticulture but we're not all experts. We'd love everyone even remotely interested in their gardens to be part of our blogsite.

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