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Fuchsias come from many corners of the earth. Tropical America furnishes a great number of species in various types. From Peru are the Fuchsia corymbiflora varieties, one handsome sort with coral blossoms, another having blooms in red and white. Also from Peru is Fuchsia macrantha, the largest flowered of all. In pinkish clusters each flower is nearly six inches in length.
Mexico gives us Fuchsia arborescens with leaves similar to the Laurel, and little red flowers in erect panicles. This Fuchsia is well-liked for winter blooming.

Various types of Fuchsia magellanica from South America are always popular because of their being so much hardier than some other sorts. This class is known as the Short-flowered Fuchsia, and there are ever so many hybrids.

Fuchsia Species & Varieties

Fuchsia magellanica globosa is one of the best-known. It has reddish-purple blossoms, is very floriferous and some plants have handsome variegated foliage.

Fuchsia magellanica gracilis is truly, as its name tells us, slender and graceful. The flowers come either singly or in pairs and are a pleasing combination of scarlet and purple.

Fuchsia magellanica riccartoni sometimes grows to a height of ten feet, is quite hardy, and a good red-flowered fall bloomer. It comes from the Falkland Islands.

Fuchsia magellanica conica has abundant and showy foliage, but a rather small purple bloom.

Fuchsia magellanica discolor is a dwarf sort with small leaves and flowers… a dainty, compact Fuchsia, while elegans and corallina are other desirable hybrids of this very large group.

Fuchsia speciosa is of the long-tubed type, the flowers being to three inches or more in length. Most garden Fuchsias are of this sort.

Fuchsia venusta is a slender grower. It has hairy branches, shining leaves and long scarlet blossoms.

Fuchsia splendens is from Mexico. It is shrubby and easily trained into an attractive form. The scarlet flowers are single.

Fuchsia boliviana bears red, trumpet-like flowers in clusters, while Fuchsia fulgens with reddish branches has clusters of bloom ranging in the hybrids from crimson to maroon. The leaves are large.

California contributes most generously with both older sorts and the newer hybrids. Baby Fuchsias having dark red flowers from a third of an inch to an inch in length are sturdy growers, exceptionally free bloomers and are very suitable for trellises or pillars in shade.

The West Indies furnish us with the colorful Triphylla Hybrids. Many of them have orange and scarlet combination’s in their flowers, while the foliage of red-bronzes and blue-greens is quite as handsome as the bloom.

From New Zealand come trailing, and the tall-growing Fuchsias. One of the best trailers that can be used for shady banks, ground cover or for rock gardens is Fuchsia proeumbens having blooms of purple, orange and blue. A rampant purple-flowered climber, easily reaching a height of twenty-five feet is F. excorticata.

English and French gardeners have given us many beautiful hybrid sorts the blue-corollaed, pink-sepaled Danube Blue being among the loveliest.

Almost innumerable striking color combination’s in bloom and foliage, novelties and varied types in form and growth give unlimited choice in the selection of Fuchsias.

A few of the finest and most satisfactory are in the single-flowered and very free blooming: Beauty of Swanley, rose corolla with lighter sepals producing an airy and dainty effect, and the plant is a tall grower. Duchess of Albany has a pink corolla and white sepals. Rose of Denmark is in tints and shades of pink, while Brutus flowers in a red and bright purple combination.

Double Fuchsias produce larger, showier blossoms… but fewer of them.