The star performers

Fuchsias are star performers in September and the vivid ones come in regal reds, episcopal purples and lipstick pinks while the paler varieties look as though they are sculpted from summer fruit ice cream. Individual flowers vary from the slender and graceful to the full ballroom-skirted whoppers. Taste dictates which you grow.

Some are hardy, some not, but I have always favoured hardies and they are behaving differently in our recent warmer winters. They always used to get cut back by frost and re-sprout from the base so they rarely got going before the end of July. But I’ve spotted some perpetually handsome fuchsia hedges in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire villages, usually in the shelter of house walls.

One of the best hedges I know lines the western wall of a cottage near me. The fuchsias are sandwiched between the house wall and another boundary wall about 4ft away. This position allows any rain to penetrate, and fuchsias seem to love moist conditions, but keeps the worst of the winter weather off. The hedge retains much of its leaf during winter and then grows away from the stems by May. Indeed, I have seen it still in flower on Christmas Day.

This handsome fuchsia looks like ‘Mrs Popple’, a vigorous single red and purple with good green foliage. This robust fuchsia has been with us since 1934 and it was spotted by a sharp-eyed nurseryman called Clarence Elliot (1881-1969). He ran a very successful nursery between the wars called Six Hills and was responsible for spotting a cracking nepeta named ‘Six Hills Giant’ and a saxifraga called ‘Elliot’s Variety’.

Mr and Mrs Popple had a garden next to Clarence’s Six Hills Nursery in Stevenage. Every autumn Clarence noticed the fuchsia and assumed it was bedded out each spring. But after a few years he discovered that it stayed out every year and had thrived for at least 20 years in the same position.

Unlike many hardy fuchsias this variety had large flowers and Clarence immediately realised that it was a winner. ‘Mrs Popple’ was launched as a new fuchsia in 1934 and became an instant success and is still superbly vigorous, floriferous and highly regarded.

The name fuchsia commemorates Leonhart Fuchs (1501-1566), a German doctor who was an early botanist and taxonomist. The plant was named posthumously in his honour in the immediate years following his death at a time when species from Central and South America were starting to arrive in Europe. But fuchsias didn’t take the horticultural world by storm until the Edwardian era. Then they became an obsession, but they are still popular today.

The trick with all hardy fuchsias is to plant them in May so that they have a chance to get some root down before winter bites. Choose a sheltered semi-shady position, like a west-facing border, because fuchsias do not enjoy strong overhead sunlight. Leave the top growth intact during winter and cut back to either sprouting buds or the base in late April if needed.

‘Mrs Popple’ forms a strong bush and is one of the best for a hedge. ‘Brutus’ (1897) is an upright double with a purple skirt and shiny red petals, ‘Alice Hoffman’ (1911) is a small-flowered red and white, and ‘Dollar Princess’ (1912) produces a bushy mound of double flowers with red sepals and a purple frill. The perfect partner is a contrasting Japanese anemone. Together they will radiate charm and colour during September.