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What to do with fuchsia for the winter. Fuchsia care in autumn and winter at home. Temperature regime for a flower

Fuchsia is a seasonal plant. Spring-autumn is a period of active growth, flowering and reproduction, and winter is a period of rest. She needs good lighting all year round, but in winter they water it less often, preventing the earthen clod from drying out by 100% and wrinkling of the bark. In autumn, they transfer the flower to a cool room (or artificially create coolness) and are not upset when they notice the leaves fall.

  • Preparing a flower for winter - the plant is left outdoors until severe frosts. Bringing it into the house ahead of time, interrupt the lignification process.
  • Since the beginning of September, the flower has not been fertilized. Fertilizers are not needed, because by this month he accumulates enough nutrients to overwinter and not die without them.
  • It will take autumn pruning to prevent the crown from stretching, reducing the size of the buds and preventing problems with flowering next spring.

Important! During pruning, weak and broken shoots must be removed, and the remaining ones should be shortened by 1/3. Otherwise, new buds will not be laid. Old forks also need to be cut off so that replacement shoots appear. It is necessary to peel off all the leaves on fuchsia.

Before transferring the plant to a winter apartment, an inspection will not hurt. It should not have yellowed leaves and dried stems. Otherwise, they will turn into a breeding ground for fungal infections and harmful insects (rust, gray rot). Experienced flower growers recommend treating fuchsia with a biological product based on wintering. rapeseed oil Rapsol. This spraying protects it from aphids and other pests.

How to prune and save a plant?

Before wintering, fuchsia is cut off, not fertilized and sprayed with a biological product purchased at a flower shop to protect against pests.

Basement or cellar

How to keep the plant in the basement, and what care is needed for it? Not everyone has the opportunity to organize the wintering of fuchsia on a glazed warm loggia apartments or in a bright greenhouse. Wintering is great in a "dark" room - in the basement, garage or cellar. Before you transfer it to one of the above rooms, cut it, remove the leaves.

In the dark, it also "breathes", as in the fresh air, consuming nutrients and evaporating water. The room where it will be located must be ventilated. Otherwise, with its appearance in it, the humidity in the air will increase, which will provoke an outbreak of fungal diseases. Optimum temperature for wintering fuchsia in the cellar or basement, where the temperature is - + 10⁰С.

Watch a video on how fuchsias winter in the cellar:

Not all flower growers have a basement or garage where you can move a pot of fuchsia for the winter. Some have no choice, and they are forced to bring it home. The apartment can also provide a comfortable wintering, but only if it is regularly aired.

In early autumn, fuchsia cuttings are transplanted into "poor soil" with a small amount of humus for the winter. This slows down the growth of young bushes. If in winter the grower notices that they are sprouting, he must ruthlessly cut them off and open the window wider to lower the temperature in the room. The stems do not need to be thrown away. You can try to root them by placing them in water on a well-lit and “warm” window sill.

If fuchsias wintering in the basement are rarely watered - 1-2 times a month, then the plants that winter in the apartment are watered more often.

Note! Due to central heating, the earth ball dries out faster, and the lack of moisture leads to the death of the flower.

On the day when the grower brings the fuchsia pot home, he must open the window and set the double-glazed window to the minimum ventilation mode. The window should always be open, except on days when it gets very cold outside.

During the dormant period, fuchsia is even more capricious than during the period of active growth and flowering. It does not respond well to excess and lack of moisture. The lack of the necessary conditions for wintering, high humidity and temperature lead to the appearance of insects. Fungicides and insecticides do not always help in the fight against them, and the plant can only be thrown away.

How to care for a flower on the windowsill?

Watch a video about the problems of room wintering fuchsias:

Does it need to be cut?

Definitely you need to prune the plant for the winter, because it is milestone in cultivation and it is very important to do it right. It is held twice a year. The first time - in the fall, when they transfer it from the garden to the basement or apartment and it is necessary to provide suitable conditions for hibernation for it, and the second - in the spring to form a beautiful bush. Fuchsia is pruned in the fall after it has faded, so as not to provoke the growth of 1-2 trunks and pulling up the bush. This procedure is necessary for the proper development of the flower next spring.

When do you need to clean up?

It is necessary to remove fuchsia in the fall, at the end of October they transfer the pot from the garden or take it from the dacha for the winter to an apartment or basement.

Care

Thanks to the work of breeders, varieties of fuchsia have appeared that will winter on the street even in those regions of the Russian Federation where the temperature on the thermometers drops below -30 degrees Celsius. Before thinking about organizing her wintering, they will find out whether she is winter-hardy or not.

Important! It is impossible to bring winter-hardy fuchsia into the apartment: it feels in natural conditions - it is better in the garden than in warmth.

Caring for fuchsia in winter is not burdensome. No need to fertilize it, but only water it as the earthen clod dries. It is advisable to maintain a temperature on the windowsill - + 10-15 degrees Celsius. It allows you to stop the growth of the plant until spring. A bad place for him is the north window, because due to an acute lack of light, it stretches out. The best time to “wake up” is the end of February. A hardy plant is left in the garden (Coralline, Baby Blue Eyes, General Monk, etc.).

Before wintering, cut it off, leaving shoots 5-10 cm long. If it grows in a hanging flowerpot, take it out and transplant it into a pot or open ground with a small amount of humus. For wintering, fuchsia is covered with a layer of peat or dry oak leaves. To protect against moisture, a layer of polyethylene film is laid on top of it.

When fuchsia is in winter, it strikes fungal disease- rust. It appears due to the fact that the grower neglected the recommendations and did not create conditions for a trouble-free wintering: the room is warm, dark and humid, and not dry and fresh. He watered the plant more often than necessary, hid it from direct sunlight and did not ventilate the room.

So that the fungus does not hit fuchsia, treat it with a 1% solution of Bordeaux mixture, but many neglect this procedure. They reproach themselves for this when dark brown spots appear on the leaves. In most cases, the diseased flower dies, and with it other indoor plants, if it is not isolated from others and the leaves affected by the fungus are not cut off on them. Noticing rust in the first days, they save the plant by preparing a disinfectant mixture from 5 liters of water, 200 grams of green soap and 15 grams of copper sulfate.

Gray rot affects fuchsia in case of waterlogging of the air in the room. It is easy to determine which part is affected: it is soft and watery, and white plaque spots are visible on the leaf plate. To cure the plant, the affected leaves are cut off, treated with special preparations and the microclimate in the room is changed to prevent re-infection of fuchsia.

Conclusion

It is easy to organize the storage of fuchsia in the winter, and it is not necessary to transfer it from the garden to the basement or to the loggia. She will overwinter on the windowsill in the apartment, if occasionally watered and sprayed, smoothing out the central heating.

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Evgeny Sedov

When hands grow from the right place, life is more fun :)

Content

Beautifully flowering indoor plants are very popular, because with their help you can decorate any room, making it brighter and more original. One of the excellent options are the bushes, stems and inflorescences of a plant such as fuchsia - the cultivation and care of which at home will require special attention. You can grow it not only at home, but also on open field.

Fuchsia care at home

Achieving active flowering when grown at home is not as difficult as it might seem at first. Fuchsia itself is a tall shrub with a lush crown, which, with abundant flowering, is covered with flowers that please with a variety of shapes and colors. Proper Care involves compliance with the temperature regime, a certain humidity, lighting, feeding and watering. In winter, the plant needs rest. The cool content at this time of the year will guarantee that fuchsia will bloom profusely in summer.

plant varieties

Reproduction of fuchsia requires a serious and competent approach, proper watering, transplanting and other equally important components. This lush bush grows mainly in the mountainous regions of South and Central America, although some varieties grow even in New Zealand. Favorable conditions for it are considered to be humid and cool air, fog and partial shade. Depending on the growth, fuchsias of ampel varieties, bush and ampel-bush varieties are distinguished. The most popular varieties, among which there are plants with double, elongated scarlet flowers, are:

  • Armbro Campbell;
  • Alisson Bell;
  • Anabel;
  • Blue Angel;
  • Henriette Ernst;
  • Imperial Crown;
  • Prince of Peace;
  • Waist;
  • Hollis Beauty.

Landing

Fuchsia can grow on almost any land, but the moisture content of the soil where you plan to plant this brightly flowering shrub should not be reduced. Moist soil during the growing season is a must, so make sure the soil does not dry out. Before planting a seedling, fill the pot with an all-purpose soil mixture. The plant feels best in soil with a loose structure, for which it does not hurt to add sand, ash or peat to the container. Sometimes, due to changing conditions, this plant with lush flowering drops its buds.

Temperature and humidity

A favorable temperature for the growth of this indoor plant, whether it is hybrid fuchsia, Anabel, Blue Angel or some other variety, is considered to be 18-25 ° C, i.e. almost room temperature. The plant grows especially well in the summer, when it is 30 ° C outside, but the bush does not tolerate heat very well. Fuchsia prefers partial shade, because. direct sunlight leads to its complete death.

Before you start planting seeds or cuttings, take care of maintaining the optimum level of humidity in advance. Spray the leaves with water using a spray gun twice a day, this procedure is not required in winter and autumn. To increase humidity in spring and especially in winter, place a container next to the bush, after filling it with water and pebbles.

Accommodation in the house

Fuchsia is preferred by lovers indoor floriculture who decorate their window sills with plants with beautiful flowers. It is better to keep it on the northwest, northeast or east window. If there is a lack of light on the north side, then the intensity of flowering decreases in the plant, but if the sun is strong, then the color of the fuchsia leaves becomes paler. Sometimes flower growers place it on the south window, but in this case the plant should be covered with paper.

Watering the plant

Fuchsia, as a rule, is watered abundantly, especially if the soil begins to dry out a lot. In the summer, you need to moisten a houseplant almost daily. True, excessive watering can adversely affect its condition, because. this will lead to rotting of the roots, a sign of which is the wilting of the leaves, a change in their shade. The key to successful cultivation lies in the correct selection of the substrate. In winter, fuchsia is watered an order of magnitude less - up to a couple of times a month if the temperature is below 0 ° C. Even if the plant is in the cold, the soil should not dry out completely.

top dressing

For this lush bush, it is best to use good drainage, which prevents moisture stagnation and a loose substrate. As for top dressing, then use finished products from specialized stores. In summer, make it every week, and in winter, fuchsia practically ceases to be fed. In the spring, before the plant begins to bloom, introduce complex fertilizers with sufficient nitrogen content. As fuchsias begin to bloom, you will need to increase their potassium and phosphorus content.

Pruning fuchsia for the winter

Before sending the plant for the winter, it is imperative to prune. Many carry out this procedure in early spring, but you can cut fuchsia in the fall. At first, perform a strong pruning, leaving shoots about 15 cm long. If the crowns are already formed, then reduce pruning to removing weak shoots, thinning and shortening the remaining ones by 1/3 of their height. In the future, to form a standard tree in certain places pinch shoots.

flower transplant

When transplanting a plant that has spent a warm winter, it is not necessary to remove the entire substrate, because. this can damage the root system. It is better to slightly shake off the old soil, place the roots in a large container and add fresh substrate. It is best to transplant in January-February, so that fuchsia has time to grow roots and form a vegetative mass before flowering. If the plant has overwintered in the basement, and it has almost no vegetative mass, then you can shake off the soil.

Fuchsia - growing and care at home

Fuchsia, which blooms profusely, is propagated by green cuttings, seeds and leaves. Preferring propagation by cuttings, select 5-8 cm stem cuttings, which must be planted in several pieces in containers with a diameter of 12 cm. Next, place the pots in a mini-greenhouse for further germination. Often, rooting of cuttings is performed using water, adding to it Activated carbon. The top of the container must be covered with polyethylene, periodically remove it for ventilation. Wait until the roots grow to 1.5-2 cm and proceed to plant the cutting.

When propagated by seeds, seedlings appear after about 50 days. For seeds, you need to prepare a mixture of peat and sand. A month later, the seedlings should be dived, after which the seedlings of 5-6 pieces should be planted in pots, not forgetting to pinch their top for better branching. In addition, you can go into standard cultivation, giving each bush a certain shape with regular pruning. With the third method of propagation from the mother plant, remove the more developed leaves with the stem, plant them in soft soil and cover with plastic.

Pests and diseases

Fuchsia - for growing and caring for this shrub at home, be extremely careful, because. it is susceptible to attack by pests. One of the most dangerous is the whitefly. The presence of this insect is indicated by sticky leaves and a swarm of small butterflies. white color. To fight, they often use a solution of laundry soap and alcohol, with which they wipe the leaves of the bush. Often, fuchsia is affected by spider mites, aphids, and sometimes even gray rot.

Jan 31 2017

Fuchsia - growing and care at home

Fuchsia (Fuchsia) is a houseplant, sometimes called the "Flower of the elves." For almost 300 years, these indoor flowers have been decorating the homes and offices of amateur florists around the world. In this article, you will read about growing fuchsia and caring for it at home. The variety of colors is simply mesmerizing. In everyday life, fuchsia is not capricious, even a novice grower can grow it at home.

Fuchsia has a huge number of hybrid forms with straight and pyramidal stems, there are ampel varieties and sprawling, hanging, climbing, in the form of bushes and bonsai. Fuchsia blooms profusely and for a long time with beautiful flowers-lanterns. Let's tell you how to care for indoor fuchsia at home:

Temperature

A comfortable temperature for growing fuchsia at home is 18 - 22 ° C in summer and not higher than 18 ° C in winter. If the temperature remains above or below these limits for a long time, the decorative effect of fuchsia may suffer. The buds will begin to fall, the leaves will become smaller and lighter. The plant will slow down its development. There will be a risk of infection with diseases and pests.

If the temperature drops below comfortable during the active growing season of fuchsia, there will be the same effect. The plant is guided by the ambient temperature. When it is warm and light, the flower actively develops and blooms profusely, usually from spring to autumn. In late autumn and winter, when it gets cooler and there is less sunlight - the development of the fuchsia flower stops, the buds stop forming - the fuchsia prepares to rest.

Location

It is better to place flowerpots with fuchsia on the windowsills of the east and north sides of the room. Even here, the flower must be protected, if necessary, from direct sunlight by means of blinds or curtains. On the windows of the north side in the spring, fuchsia may not have enough lighting. You will have to provide the bushes with illumination using a phyto lamp or a fluorescent lamp up to 12 hours a day.

On the south windows, especially in summer, fuchsia will be too hot. It is better at this time to take the flowerpot to the garden under the trees or to the balcony, where the sun's rays will illuminate the fuchsia only early in the morning. At noon and until evening, fuchsia feels better in partial shade. During flowering, it is desirable not to rearrange the flower from place to place and not to turn to the light in different directions. Fuchsia does not like this, and may simply drop all the buds.

Watering

Proper watering is the most important component of caring for flowering fuchsias. Many factors affect the frequency and amount of watering a flower:

  • Pot Location
  • Fuchsia variety
  • Stage of her growth
  • Soil composition
  • Size and type of pot
  • Weather

Without additional nutrition, fuchsia can last quite a long time, but not without water. Fuchsia should be watered regularly. Make sure that the soil is well saturated with moisture every time. The next watering should be no earlier than the top layer of soil from the previous watering has dried up. Excess water from the pan must be drained to prevent stagnation of moisture in the roots of the plant.

A flowering plant has a great need for moisture. Watering in the summer will have to be frequent and regular - every 3-4 days, and sometimes more often.

If the fuchsia looks drooping and the soil in the pot is damp, it's not about watering. Perhaps your beauty has overheated.

In autumn, watering is gradually reduced to once a week, and in winter it is watered no more than once or twice a month.

top dressing

You need to feed fuchsia regularly, once every two weeks. This is especially important during the active growing season, from April until autumn. For top dressing, complex fertilizers are used for decorative flowering plants. Watering with liquid fertilizers must be done on moist soil. Top dressing helps fuchsia grow green mass and form countless buds. You can also apply foliar top dressing of fuchsia on the back of the leaves.

During winter dormancy, fuchsia is not fed.

Young, newly planted fuchsia bushes do not need to be fed, as they are planted in well-prepared soil filled with all the necessary microelements and organic matter. The same rule applies when transplanting a plant into a larger pot with new nutrient soil. Feeding should be resumed, somewhere, a month after transplantation.

Air humidity and spraying

For fuchsia, air humidity in the range of 50 - 60% is comfortable. Too dry indoor air will cause yellowing and wilting of fuchsia leaves and buds. You can increase the humidity of the surrounding air using wide containers of water placed next to the fuchsia. You can also put a flower pot in a tray with wet pebbles or expanded clay.

On hot summer days, fuchsia will be saved from the heat by regular spraying with settled water at room temperature in the morning and evening. It would be nice to take the fuchsia out into the fresh air in the garden, in the shade under the trees, or at least on the balcony, where the sun's rays fall only in the morning. But we must remember that this must be done carefully - after all, fuchsia does not like it when it is moved from one place to another during flowering.

When spraying, try not to hit the flowers with a jet.

Landing

It is impossible to plant a fuchsia, or, moreover, a stalk immediately in a large pot. It is necessary to increase the size of the pot gradually. At first, the pot should not be more than 9 cm in diameter. As the roots entwine the entire clod of earth, and the need arises to transplant the plant, you can prepare a slightly larger pot. Lay a good layer of expanded clay or other drainage material at the bottom. Fill a layer of soil and plant a prepared bush or cutting.

The pot should be well filled with soil to prevent voids between the roots and the walls of the pot. To do this, gently shake the pot and tap on its walls, but, in no case, do not tamp with your hands. For fuchsia growth, porous soil is just as important as good drainage.

Transfer

We take out fuchsia from an old pot

Fuchsia is a fast growing plant. Therefore, it must be regularly transplanted into a suitable size pot, which is 3 - 4 cm larger than before. This is best done every spring, during the beginning of the awakening and growth of the flower.

It is better to take a ceramic pot so that it protects the root system of the plant from overheating in the summer heat. Don't forget drainage. 2 - 3 cm of expanded clay or pebbles at the bottom of the pot will protect the roots of the plant from rotting. As a substrate, it is better to take a purchased soil mixture for flowering houseplants.

You can independently prepare the soil for transplanting fuchsia. To do this, mix in equal parts leafy soil, soddy soil, humus, peat and coarse river sand. Transplant using the transshipment method: pour a little prepared soil into the pot on the drainage layer, then carefully remove the fuchsia from the old pot and place it in a new pot together with a clod of earth. Fill the voids on the sides with soil mixture.

Fuchsia after transplantation, place on a shelf with diffused lighting. Trim its stems to one-third of the length. Spray the leaves and pour the substrate with settled water until excess water appears in the pan. After a few minutes, drain excess moisture from the pan.

Feeding is not needed after transplantation for a month!

Now wait a couple of months - the abundant flowering of fuchsia is guaranteed to you!

Trimming and pinching

Fuchsia flowers appear on young shoots. In order to increase such shoots, the plant should be cut regularly, and young shoots should be pinched. Pinching is a very effective method to make fuchsia bloom more profusely. With the help of pinches, they form the necessary shape, give the crown the appearance of a ball, bush or miniature bonsai tree.

Fuchsia, depending on the variety, grows to a height of three meters or more. In room conditions, it is difficult and impractical to grow such a giant. If you pinch the plant in time, it will form into a strong and beautiful bush.

It is necessary to prune indoor fuchsia twice a year: in autumn, at the end of the mass flowering of the flower (October), and in winter (in early January).

Fuchsia in the shape of a tree

During the first, autumn, pruning, you will remove all faded fuchsia branches at a height of 2 cm from sleeping buds. Carefully inspect each branch for pests, remove extra seed pods and obsolete flower stalks. If insect pests are found, cut off badly damaged parts of the flower and treat the entire plant with an insecticide.

Make the second pruning in early January for the final formation of the crown of the plant. If the fuchsia wintered in the basement or garage, the plant has already been cut off in the fall. In the spring, it remains to remove dry shoots and leaves from it.

If the plant has been in the room all winter, it must be cut off. Using a clean pruner or garden shears, remove any long and thin shoots, as they will be of little use. They will not bloom magnificently, and your bush will not become more beautiful from them.

fuchsia bonsai

If the plant is pruned periodically, it will grow in breadth instead of height. It is also better to cut the stiff old shoots, as they consume nutrients, and there are almost no flowers on them. All flowers bloom only on young shoots. Soon a strong and beautiful bush will form.

If you decide to form a bonsai from fuchsia, then leave only one shoot or, conversely, several such shoots that can be twisted together so that they act as the trunk of your tree. The tops must be pinched to form a lush crown at the bonsai.

What is the best way to pinch fuchsia so as not to harm its beauty and decorativeness?

If you want to form a tree from fuchsia, pinching should be done in winter, when the life processes of the plant slow down. Remove excess shoots, leave a few on the central stem. Look what happened in the spring. If the crown of the flower is not yet formed as you would like, in the spring it is cut again.

You can cut the plant to the very stump. In this case, the fuchsia will sleep longer and bloom later, but a wide bush will form.

Fuchsia in the form of a bush

If the shoots are cut only by a third, the fuchsia will turn into a tree and can take up a lot of space.

Shoots that grow in place of old branches are pinched a couple of times as they grow. Fuchsia will then turn into a lush beauty and delight you with abundant flowering.

If young branches are pinched over the third pair of leaves, tillering will increase. To enhance the tillering effect, the overgrown branches need to be pinched again, but now near the second pair of leaves.

You decide what you will grow from fuchsia - a bush or a tree!

Keep in mind that before flowering, fuchsia takes two months to form and develop buds. Fuchsias with small simple flowers bloom earlier than plants with giant inflorescences and large double flowers.

Fuchsia winter care

Fuchsia is a perennial plant. It cannot grow and bloom from year to year without interruption. To replenish vitality, she needs rest - wintering. But care at home in winter is just as necessary as in other seasons. Usually in winter, fuchsia is at rest. From a warm, bright room, it must be transferred to a dark and cool one. For example, in a basement or garage with a temperature of 5 to 15°C. Fuchsia does not need lighting in winter. A couple of times a month indoor flower should be watered - he does not like very dry soil even during hibernation. Let him stay there until the end of January. Don't worry about the leaves falling off - you'll remove almost all of the shoots anyway. By spring, new, young ones will grow.

If you have a glazed and insulated balcony, where the temperature does not drop to minus values, a pot of fuchsia can also overwinter on the balcony. Only here she will not be able to fully rest, since the processes of her development will continue in the world. The flower will need to be looked after and regularly, but not plentifully, watered. Dry leaves and shoots must be cut off so as not to provoke the development of diseases. In winter, a weakened plant can attract the attention of pests. It should be treated with an insecticide at least once during the autumn-winter season.

If your fuchsia is in the room in winter, it will survive, but by the end of winter it will lose all its attractiveness and take on a deplorable appearance. In this case, cut the plant back to 2/3 of its length and remove any dead branches. Move the flower away from heating appliances- on a table or shelf. Keep an eye on the humidity of the surrounding air. If necessary, and in winter it is definitely necessary, increase the humidity in the room by spraying the plant with warm water. Ventilate the room as often as possible. Place wide containers filled with water next to the flower. Regularly, but not too abundantly, water the soil with settled water, sometimes adding potassium permanganate. Once a month, feed the flower with a complex fertilizer for flowering plants. If these conditions are met, your fuchsia will come to life, new shoots will appear. It may even bloom in winter. But do not expect that in the spring it will quickly restore its shape and delight you with unprecedented flowering.

Reproduction by cuttings

Rooting a cutting in water is the main and most successful way to propagate fuchsia. The best time for cuttings is spring. Choose a young shoot on a fuchsia bush. The length of the cutting depends directly on the variety of fuchsia. Usually they take from 10 to 20 cm. The bottom line is that over time, fuchsia shoots harden a little. If you take an old shoot for propagation, it will also take root, but this process will take longer. The young shoot will take root faster, and will grow more actively in the future. Remove the leaves at the bottom of the shoot so that none of them come into contact with the liquid in the container prepared for rooting. Large leaves, too, cut completely or half. The stalk does not yet have its roots, and the leaves will draw all the moisture out of it, preventing the root system from forming. Place the cutting in a jar of settled water and cover with a dense translucent bag on top. After 5-10 days, roots should appear. After a couple of weeks, the cutting can be planted in a prepared (preferably ceramic) pot with a nutrient mixture and drainage at the bottom. The size of the pot should be no more than 9 cm in height.

Rooting cuttings in water

If you decide to start breeding fuchsia in the summer, keep in mind that it loves coolness and humidity. At high temperatures, the stalk placed in water can rot without rooting. We advise you to root the cutting in an air-conditioned room or with a split system.

In autumn, fuchsia prepares for a dormant period. All life support processes of the plant are slowed down. So from September to January, propagation using cuttings is best not to carry out.

The second method involves planting the cutting immediately in the prepared substrate - in, in perlite, vermiculite or sphagnum. Be sure to place the planting material in a greenhouse or a container with a lid to create a greenhouse effect, as such rooting requires high humidity. As soon as the shoots take root, the greenhouse is slightly opened, the seedling is gradually accustomed to room conditions.

A sharp change in climate can cause the shoot to lose leaves and die.

Autumn harvesting cuttings

Autumn harvesting of cuttings is the most The best way save fuchsia during the winter period. In early autumn, cut several cuttings from an adult healthy bush. They are suitable for breeding fuchsia. We take several cuttings for safety, if suddenly some of them do not survive the winter.

Cuttings should be taken 15 - 20 cm in length, depending on the variety. Store them in pots of earth in cool areas, such as garages and basements. You can also save fuchsia cuttings on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator, in a bag of sawdust. Closer to spring, they are taken out, treated with a solution of potassium permanganate and put in water for rooting. (see above)

Reproduction by leaves

If it is not possible to cut a cutting suitable for propagation from a fuchsia bush, fuchsia leaves can be used for this purpose. Cut a large healthy leaf along with the cutting and bury it a centimeter in wet perlite. In greenhouse conditions with daily spraying, high humidity and a constant temperature at the base of the petiole, a miniature rosette of leaves will begin to develop. When it is strong enough, separate it from the leaf and plant it in a separate pot with a nutrient mixture (any potting mix for flowering plants will do).

Reproduction by seeds

Growing from seeds at home in the case of fuchsia is rarely used. This is only possible for experienced flower growers or breeders. Sometimes, for the sake of experiment, flower growers also try to collect seeds from a plant and grow their fuchsia specimen from them. If you want to try it too, we'll show you how.

The procedure for obtaining fuchsia seeds is quite laborious, but interesting.

To begin with, exclude the possibility of self-pollination of the plant or pollination of its random insects. To do this, on a selected flower that has not yet blossomed, remove the anthers. Then, on the stigma of the pistil, on the stamens, apply the pollen of the fuchsia variety you want to grow. Now carefully put a fabric cover on the bud or wrap it with a piece of gauze and fix it with a thread. In this form, the flower will stand for several weeks until the fruit ripens.

In order not to spoil your work, it is better not to touch the flower during the ripening of the fruit!

When the fruit is ready, remove it from the stem with tweezers. Carefully cut and remove the seeds. Dry the seeds for several days before planting them in the ground or storing them. It is better to plant seeds in tall containers with a lid. You need to sow the seeds on a damp surface of the substrate (peat plus coarse sand). Do not cover the seeds, just press them down a little with your fingers. Close the lid and place the container in a well-lit, warm spot for germination. But not in direct sunlight! It is desirable to sow fuchsia in early spring. The lack of lighting needs to be filled with additional lighting with fluorescent lamps. The seed germination temperature should be maintained between 18 - 22 °C. Don't forget to ventilate your greenhouse. If necessary, moisten the soil in the container with settled water using a fine spray bottle. Shoots will appear in a couple of weeks. Now the lid can be opened more often and longer - let the young bushes get used to room conditions. Make sure that the substrate does not dry out, the lighting is diffused and at least 12 hours. per day, the temperature should be comfortable.

After one and a half to two months, young fuchsia bushes need to be dived. Before transplanting plants, the substrate in the container is well watered. Seedlings are taken out along with the ground at the root system, one at a time, and planted in a separate pot. Abundantly watered. The land can be used purchased for flowering plants, or you can prepare it yourself from equal parts of sod and leaf soil, humus, peat and coarse sand. Remove pots with young growth from sunlight to shade - let them get used to new conditions gradually. After a couple of weeks, pots with young fuchsias can be placed in a permanent place prepared for them. Further care is regular watering, good lighting, comfortable temperature. In a month, not earlier, you can start to feed little by little with complex fertilizers for flowering plants. No more than once every 2 weeks. Don't forget to shape the crown of your flower. If you want it to be lush, strong and not too high, pinch its top.

Diseases

Fuchsia is rarely affected by diseases and insect pests. The main problems arise with careless care of the plant. We will introduce you to some of the problems that arise when growing fuchsia at home.

Fuchsia dropped buds. Likely causes:

  • insufficient or excessive watering;
  • rearrangement of a pot with a flowering plant to a new place;
  • insufficient lighting;
  • too high air temperature;
  • lack of nutrition in the soil.

Why fuchsia sheds leaves. Likely causes:

  • too dry air in the room;
  • high air temperature;
  • lack of moisture in the soil;
  • lack of nutrition in the soil.

Fuchsia has yellowed leaves. Likely causes:

  • waterlogging the soil (water the flower correctly, excess water from the pan must be drained. During the dormant period, reduce watering to a minimum).

Dark spots and small drops of dew appeared on the fuchsia leaves. Likely causes:

  • too high humidity in the room (it is necessary to reduce the humidity, ventilate the room more often, spray fuchsia with special preparations).

Fuchsia does not bloom. The reasons may be the following:

  • unfavorable conditions during hibernation;
  • late circumcision or not untimely pinching of fuchsia;
  • the plant is in direct sunlight;
  • little light (shoots will stretch out, be thin and frail, buds will be weak or not formed at all).
  • the pot is too big for the flower (fuchsia will bloom when its roots completely cover the entire earth in the pot. If the flower is still small and the pot is too large, most likely you will not see flowers this year);
  • the soil in the pot is poor and too light (such land is quickly compacted from watering, it has few useful elements. root system located along the edges of the pot, cannot braid the entire earthen lump in the center and suffers greatly from this);
  • the soil is too heavy, the roots develop poorly or completely stop developing (the plant does not receive moisture and nutrition, the soil turns sour, the roots rot);
  • the flower was overfed with nitrogen fertilizers (the green mass will begin to increase at the expense of flowering. Until the fuchsia has mastered the entire excess supply of nitrogen fertilizers, it will not bloom).

Pests

whitefly

If this problem occurs, you will have to solve it with the help of folk remedies or chemicals, insecticides. It is necessary to spray the affected plants several times, with breaks of 5 to 7 days, until complete deliverance fuchsia from sucking insects.

Monitor your plants, inspect them regularly for diseases and pests, and take action in time.

Video: fuchsia care

Conclusion

Bright, varied and multi-colored, indoor fuchsias are precious pieces in the collection of any amateur florist. If you have not yet purchased this flower and doubt your abilities as a grower, then this is in vain. Growing fuchsia is within the power of even a novice grower. Your time, knowledge and cost of caring for her at home will not be wasted. Fuchsia will thank you with fabulous flowering for many years!

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Proper care for fuchsia in winter at home involves a number of activities. They are aimed at preparing the flower for the cold, competently preserving it and bringing it back to life with the onset of spring. Fuchsia is the object of worship and adoration of most flower growers. This plant looks bright, striking everyone with a rich palette of colors and originality of form. Fuchsia belongs to the category of perennial evergreen shrubs of the Cyprus family. This plant is native to South America. Due to its beauty and unpretentiousness in care, it is incredibly popular with gardeners around the world. Today, science knows several hundred species of this shrub that grows in the wild. The plant easily tolerates transportation. It is equally well adapted for life in a garden and a city apartment. Especially appreciated by flower lovers is the fact that when good care fuchsia can live over 50 years.

In order for an exotic flower to always please its owner, it needs to create the appropriate conditions for growth, flowering and rest during the off-season. Therefore, everyone is interested in how to care for fuchsia growing in the open field and at home in a flower pot.

Let's dwell on the basic rules for caring for fuchsia at home

    Watering mode. Fuchsia belongs to the category of moisture-loving plants. It responds equally well to both root watering and external spraying. You need to water the shrub every day in small portions. A signal that the plant needs moisture is the drying of the top layer of soil to a depth of 1 cm or more. But you should not abuse watering. Excess moisture leads to the development of mold and root rot. Waterlogging can be avoided by creating a drainage layer at the bottom of the flowerpot. For this, expanded clay or well-cleaned pebbles are used.

    flower lighting. Despite the fact that fuchsia is one of the heat-loving flowers, it is not recommended to put it where there is direct sunlight. For this plant, reflected light and even partial shade conditions are quite enough. When choosing a place for a shrub, you need to consider the contrast factor. For plants with flowers of a dark shade, more color is needed, and bright ones light flowers much better in the shade.

    The choice of soil mixture and. It is best to use black soil with the addition of leafy humus for growing shrubs. Such a composition will provide the root system with nutrients, give it freedom to grow. The plant needs constant feeding. For blooming fuchsia, you need to use biological fertilizers with a minimum nitrogen content. Fertilizers can be applied along with the irrigation liquid or by adding them directly to the soil. When winter comes, the plant does not need to be fed. He has a state of rest, when there is no need for nutrients.

    Temperature maintenance. Despite the fact that hot countries are the birthplace of fuchsia, it reacts extremely negatively to high temperatures. With its increase above +25 ºС, the shrub becomes lethargic, does not bloom and does not bear fruit. In summer, the flower must be protected from direct sunlight. To do this, you need to clean the flowerpot in a cool place, and create an artificial shadow for the flower garden.

Fuchsia ampelous

If the gardener follows these simple rules, then he will not have to look for an answer to the question of why exotic flowers and fruits do not appear on the fuchsia bush.

Preparing the plant for wintering

V winter time shrub is dormant. This transition is due to the adaptation of fuchsia to climatic conditions, when the temperature drops, and the sun's rays become insufficient for normal functioning. Rest is necessary for the plant to restore the energy spent during the season and prepare for flowering next season.

Preparing the shrub for winter conservation is as follows:

    Reducing the amount of watering. This should be done gradually, within a month, completely stopping watering. Such an event should begin in September, so that the stem and branches are completely dehydrated by the first frost.

    Stop fertilizing in any form. Stopping feeding encourages shedding of foliage and flower petals. The plant receives a kind of signal that it is necessary to reduce activity.

    Restriction of light access. The flowerpot should be removed away from the window. It is necessary that only natural light reflected from the walls and ceiling falls on it. If this is not possible, then an incandescent lamp, switched on for several hours a day, will do.

    Decrease in air temperature. The flowerpot must be taken out to a glazed balcony, brought into a basement or other room where the air temperature does not exceed +15ºС.

Need to reduce watering in preparation for winter

After that, you need to wait until all the leaves and petals fall off the stems, and they themselves become dry and brittle.

Fuchsia winter care

After the shrub has passed into a state of rest, it is necessary to carry out a number of measures to ensure its normal hibernation and successful awakening in the spring.

The grower needs to do the following:

    Wash the pot well from the inside, disinfect its walls. Equip a new drainage inside the pot, fill in fresh fertile soil. Gently place a bush in it.

After carrying out sanitary procedures, you need to place the fuchsia in a dark, damp place. In order to prevent the earthen coma from drying out and breaking the roots, the plant must be periodically watered with clean, settled water.

Preparing fuchsia for wintering

If fuchsia is left warm for the winter, then it is likely that it will not bloom throughout the next season. This is one of the features of this beautiful, but capricious flower.

Fuchsia awakening in spring

It is necessary to bring the plant out of hibernation at the beginning of spring, when it is warm and there is more and more sunlight.

In order for the flower to successfully switch to an active state after wintering, it is necessary to perform the following manipulations with it:

    Carry out pruning. This is necessary in order to get rid of old wood, obsolete leaves and buds. Old branches are cut almost to the base, and fresh shoots are cut to a third of the length. In addition, the stems directed inside the bush and forming dense plexuses in the crown are removed.

    Place the pot in a warm place, where the flower will be reflected sunlight. Start progressive watering with a sufficient amount of organic fertilizer. You need to water the flower after sunset, so as not to provoke stress. When the stem swells and gets stronger, it needs to be rinsed from the dust that has accumulated over the winter.

    Place a container of water next to the pot to ensure uniform saturation of wood with moisture from the inside and outside. If this is not done, then the trunk and branches may become covered with cracks.

At proper preparation bush for wintering and removing it from hibernation in a month, the stem is completely restored. Buds and buds appear on it. If you plan to grow fuchsia outdoors in the garden, then you need to plant it no later than a week after the last night frost.

Reproduction of fuchsia

It is quite understandable that any grower wants to have several fuchsia bushes grown on their own. You can propagate this bush at home without resorting to the help of professionals.

Reproduction of fuchsia is carried out in two ways:

    seeds. The interest of this approach is that the new plant can be very different from its parent. This happens due to the self-pollination of the flower or the participation of bees in this process. The result of growing from seeds can be a greenhouse of different colors of flowers of the same genus.

    cuttings. A young shoot up to 20 cm long is cut off from a bush that has awakened from winter sleep. After removing the leaves from the bottom, the root is placed in clean water. After the roots appear, the cutting is transplanted into the ground.

As fuchsia grows, it is transplanted into a larger flowerpot. This procedure must be carried out annually to provide room for the roots, which are constantly increasing in volume. Transplantation is best done in autumn or spring, when the plant is at rest.

Fuchsia (Fuchsia) is a houseplant, sometimes called the "Flower of the elves." For almost 300 years, these indoor flowers have been decorating the homes and offices of amateur florists around the world. In this article, you will read about growing fuchsia and caring for it at home. The variety of colors is simply mesmerizing. In everyday life, fuchsia is not capricious, even a novice grower can grow it at home.

Care

Fuchsia has a huge number of hybrid forms with straight and pyramidal stems, there are ampel varieties and sprawling, hanging, climbing, in the form of bushes and bonsai. Fuchsia blooms profusely and for a long time with beautiful flowers-lanterns. Let's tell you how to care for indoor fuchsia at home:

Temperature

A comfortable temperature for growing fuchsia at home is 18 - 22 ° C in summer and not higher than 18 ° C in winter. If the temperature remains above or below these limits for a long time, the decorative effect of fuchsia may suffer. The buds will begin to fall, the leaves will become smaller and lighter. The plant will slow down its development. There will be a risk of infection with diseases and pests.

If the temperature drops below comfortable during the active growing season of fuchsia, there will be the same effect. The plant is guided by the ambient temperature. When it is warm and light, the flower actively develops and blooms profusely, usually from spring to autumn. In late autumn and winter, when it gets cooler and there is less sunlight - the development of the fuchsia flower stops, the buds stop forming - the fuchsia prepares to rest.

Location

It is better to place flowerpots with fuchsia on the windowsills of the east and north sides of the room. Even here, the flower must be protected, if necessary, from direct sunlight by means of blinds or curtains. On the windows of the north side in the spring, fuchsia may not have enough lighting. You will have to provide the bushes with illumination using a phyto lamp or a fluorescent lamp up to 12 hours a day.

On the south windows, especially in summer, fuchsia will be too hot. It is better at this time to take the flowerpot to the garden under the trees or to the balcony, where the sun's rays will illuminate the fuchsia only early in the morning. At noon and until evening, fuchsia feels better in partial shade. During flowering, it is desirable not to rearrange the flower from place to place and not to turn to the light in different directions. Fuchsia does not like this, and may simply drop all the buds.

Watering

Proper watering is the most important component of caring for flowering fuchsias. Many factors affect the frequency and amount of watering a flower:

  • Pot Location
  • Fuchsia variety
  • Stage of her growth
  • Soil composition
  • Size and type of pot
  • Weather

Without additional nutrition, fuchsia can last quite a long time, but not without water. Fuchsia should be watered regularly. Make sure that the soil is well saturated with moisture every time. The next watering should be no earlier than the top layer of soil from the previous watering has dried up. Excess water from the pan must be drained to prevent stagnation of moisture in the roots of the plant.

A flowering plant has a great need for moisture. Watering in the summer will have to be frequent and regular - every 3-4 days, and sometimes more often.

If the fuchsia looks drooping and the soil in the pot is damp, it's not about watering. Perhaps your beauty has overheated.

In autumn, watering is gradually reduced to once a week, and in winter it is watered no more than once or twice a month.

top dressing

You need to feed fuchsia regularly, once every two weeks. This is especially important during the active growing season, from April until autumn. For top dressing, complex fertilizers are used for decorative flowering plants. Watering with liquid fertilizers must be done on moist soil. Top dressing helps fuchsia grow green mass and form countless buds. You can also apply foliar top dressing of fuchsia on the back of the leaves.

During winter dormancy, fuchsia is not fed.

Young, newly planted fuchsia bushes do not need to be fed, as they are planted in well-prepared soil filled with all the necessary microelements and organic matter. The same rule applies when transplanting a plant into a larger pot with new nutrient soil. Feeding should be resumed, somewhere, a month after transplantation.

Air humidity and spraying

For fuchsia, air humidity in the range of 50 - 60% is comfortable. Too dry indoor air will cause yellowing and wilting of fuchsia leaves and buds. You can increase the humidity of the surrounding air using wide containers of water placed next to the fuchsia. You can also put a flower pot in a tray with wet pebbles or expanded clay.

On hot summer days, fuchsia will be saved from the heat by regular spraying with settled water at room temperature in the morning and evening. It would be nice to take the fuchsia out into the fresh air in the garden, in the shade under the trees, or at least on the balcony, where the sun's rays fall only in the morning. But we must remember that this must be done carefully - after all, fuchsia does not like it when it is moved from one place to another during flowering.

When spraying, try not to hit the flowers with a jet.

Landing

It is impossible to plant a fuchsia, or, moreover, a stalk immediately in a large pot. It is necessary to increase the size of the pot gradually. At first, the pot should not be more than 9 cm in diameter. As the roots entwine the entire clod of earth, and the need arises to transplant the plant, you can prepare a slightly larger pot. Lay a good layer of expanded clay or other drainage material at the bottom. Fill a layer of soil and plant a prepared bush or cutting.

The pot should be well filled with soil to prevent voids between the roots and the walls of the pot. To do this, gently shake the pot and tap on its walls, but, in no case, do not tamp with your hands. For fuchsia growth, porous soil is just as important as good drainage.

Transfer

We take out fuchsia from an old pot

Fuchsia is a fast growing plant. Therefore, it must be regularly transplanted into a suitable size pot, which is 3 - 4 cm larger than before. This is best done every spring, during the beginning of the awakening and growth of the flower.

It is better to take a ceramic pot so that it protects the root system of the plant from overheating in the summer heat. Don't forget drainage. 2 - 3 cm of expanded clay or pebbles at the bottom of the pot will protect the roots of the plant from rotting. As a substrate, it is better to take a purchased soil mixture for flowering houseplants.

You can independently prepare the soil for transplanting fuchsia. To do this, mix in equal parts leafy soil, soddy soil, humus, peat and coarse river sand. Transplant using the transshipment method: pour a little prepared soil into the pot on the drainage layer, then carefully remove the fuchsia from the old pot and place it in a new pot together with a clod of earth. Fill the voids on the sides with soil mixture.

Fuchsia after transplantation, place on a shelf with diffused lighting. Trim its stems to one-third of the length. Spray the leaves and pour the substrate with settled water until excess water appears in the pan. After a few minutes, drain excess moisture from the pan.

Feeding is not needed after transplantation for a month!

Now wait a couple of months - the abundant flowering of fuchsia is guaranteed to you!

Trimming and pinching

Fuchsia flowers appear on young shoots. In order to increase such shoots, the plant should be cut regularly, and young shoots should be pinched. Pinching is a very effective method to make fuchsia bloom more profusely. With the help of pinches, they form the necessary shape, give the crown the appearance of a ball, bush or miniature bonsai tree.

Fuchsia, depending on the variety, grows to a height of three meters or more. In room conditions, it is difficult and impractical to grow such a giant. If you pinch the plant in time, it will form into a strong and beautiful bush.

It is necessary to prune indoor fuchsia twice a year: in autumn, at the end of the mass flowering of the flower (October), and in winter (in early January).

Fuchsia in the shape of a tree

During the first, autumn, pruning, you will remove all faded fuchsia branches at a height of 2 cm from sleeping buds. Carefully inspect each branch for pests, remove extra seed pods and obsolete flower stalks. If insect pests are found, cut off badly damaged parts of the flower and treat the entire plant with an insecticide.

Make the second pruning in early January for the final formation of the crown of the plant. If the fuchsia wintered in the basement or garage, the plant has already been cut off in the fall. In the spring, it remains to remove dry shoots and leaves from it.

If the plant has been in the room all winter, it must be cut off. Using a clean pruner or garden shears, remove any long and thin shoots, as they will be of little use. They will not bloom magnificently, and your bush will not become more beautiful from them.

fuchsia bonsai

If the plant is pruned periodically, it will grow in breadth instead of height. It is also better to cut the stiff old shoots, as they consume nutrients, and there are almost no flowers on them. All flowers bloom only on young shoots. Soon a strong and beautiful bush will form.

If you decide to form a bonsai from fuchsia, then leave only one shoot or, conversely, several such shoots that can be twisted together so that they act as the trunk of your tree. The tops must be pinched to form a lush crown at the bonsai.

What is the best way to pinch fuchsia so as not to harm its beauty and decorativeness?

If you want to form a tree from fuchsia, pinching should be done in winter, when the life processes of the plant slow down. Remove excess shoots, leave a few on the central stem. Look what happened in the spring. If the crown of the flower is not yet formed as you would like, in the spring it is cut again.

You can cut the plant to the very stump. In this case, the fuchsia will sleep longer and bloom later, but a wide bush will form.

Fuchsia in the form of a bush

If the shoots are cut only by a third, the fuchsia will turn into a tree and can take up a lot of space.

Shoots that grow in place of old branches are pinched a couple of times as they grow. Fuchsia will then turn into a lush beauty and delight you with abundant flowering.

If young branches are pinched over the third pair of leaves, tillering will increase. To enhance the tillering effect, the overgrown branches need to be pinched again, but now near the second pair of leaves.

You decide what you will grow from fuchsia - a bush or a tree!

Keep in mind that before flowering, fuchsia takes two months to form and develop buds. Fuchsias with small simple flowers bloom earlier than plants with giant inflorescences and large double flowers.

Fuchsia winter care

Fuchsia is a perennial plant. It cannot grow and bloom from year to year without interruption. To replenish vitality, she needs rest - wintering. But care at home in winter is just as necessary as in other seasons. Usually in winter, fuchsia is at rest. From a warm, bright room, it must be transferred to a dark and cool one. For example, in a basement or garage with a temperature of 5 to 15°C. Fuchsia does not need lighting in winter. A couple of times a month, an indoor flower should be watered - he does not like very dry soil even during hibernation. Let him stay there until the end of January. Don't worry about the leaves falling off - you'll remove almost all of the shoots anyway. By spring, new, young ones will grow.

If you have a glazed and insulated balcony, where the temperature does not drop to minus values, a pot of fuchsia can also overwinter on the balcony. Only here she will not be able to fully rest, since the processes of her development will continue in the world. The flower will need to be looked after and regularly, but not plentifully, watered. Dry leaves and shoots must be cut off so as not to provoke the development of diseases. In winter, a weakened plant can attract the attention of pests. It should be treated with an insecticide at least once during the autumn-winter season.

If your fuchsia is in the room in winter, it will survive, but by the end of winter it will lose all its attractiveness and take on a deplorable appearance. In this case, cut the plant back to 23 times its length and remove any dead branches. Move the flower away from the heaters - on a table or shelf. Keep an eye on the humidity of the surrounding air. If necessary, and in winter it is definitely necessary, increase the humidity in the room by spraying the plant with warm water. Ventilate the room as often as possible. Place wide containers filled with water next to the flower. Regularly, but not too abundantly, water the soil with settled water, sometimes adding potassium permanganate. Once a month, feed the flower with a complex fertilizer for flowering plants. If these conditions are met, your fuchsia will come to life, new shoots will appear. It may even bloom in winter. But do not expect that in the spring it will quickly restore its shape and delight you with unprecedented flowering.

Reproduction by cuttings

Rooting a cutting in water is the main and most successful way to propagate fuchsia. The best time for cuttings is spring. Choose a young shoot on a fuchsia bush. The length of the cutting depends directly on the variety of fuchsia. Usually they take from 10 to 20 cm. The bottom line is that over time, fuchsia shoots harden a little. If you take an old shoot for propagation, it will also take root, but this process will take longer. The young shoot will take root faster, and will grow more actively in the future. Remove the leaves at the bottom of the shoot so that none of them come into contact with the liquid in the container prepared for rooting. Large leaves, too, cut completely or half. The stalk does not yet have its roots, and the leaves will draw all the moisture out of it, preventing the root system from forming. Place the cutting in a jar of settled water and cover with a dense translucent bag on top. After 5-10 days, roots should appear. After a couple of weeks, the cutting can be planted in a prepared (preferably ceramic) pot with a nutrient mixture and drainage at the bottom. The size of the pot should be no more than 9 cm in height.

Rooting cuttings in water

If you decide to start breeding fuchsia in the summer, keep in mind that it loves coolness and humidity. At high temperatures, the stalk placed in water can rot without rooting. We advise you to root the cutting in an air-conditioned room or with a split system.

In autumn, fuchsia prepares for a dormant period. All life support processes of the plant are slowed down. So from September to January, propagation using cuttings is best not to carry out.

The second method involves planting the cutting immediately in the prepared substrate - in a peat tablet, in perlite, vermiculite or sphagnum. Be sure to place the planting material in a greenhouse or a container with a lid to create a greenhouse effect, as such rooting requires high humidity. As soon as the shoots take root, the greenhouse is slightly opened, the seedling is gradually accustomed to room conditions.

A sharp change in climate can cause the shoot to lose leaves and die.

Autumn harvesting cuttings

Fall cuttings are the best way to preserve fuchsia through the winter. In early autumn, cut several cuttings from an adult healthy bush. They are suitable for breeding fuchsia. We take several cuttings for safety, if suddenly some of them do not survive the winter.

Cuttings should be taken 15 - 20 cm in length, depending on the variety. Store them in pots of earth in cool areas, such as garages and basements. You can also save fuchsia cuttings on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator, in a bag of sawdust. Closer to spring, they are taken out, treated with a solution of potassium permanganate and put in water for rooting. (see above)

Reproduction by leaves

If it is not possible to cut a cutting suitable for propagation from a fuchsia bush, fuchsia leaves can be used for this purpose. Cut a large healthy leaf along with the cutting and bury it a centimeter in wet perlite. In greenhouse conditions, with daily spraying, high humidity and constant temperature, a miniature rosette of leaves will begin to develop at the base of the petiole. When it is strong enough, separate it from the leaf and plant it in a separate pot with a nutrient mixture (any potting mix for flowering plants will do).

Reproduction by seeds

fuchsia seeds

Growing from seeds at home in the case of fuchsia is rarely used. This is only possible for experienced flower growers or breeders. Sometimes, for the sake of experiment, flower growers also try to collect seeds from a plant and grow their fuchsia specimen from them. If you want to try it too, we'll show you how.

The procedure for obtaining fuchsia seeds is quite laborious, but interesting.

To begin with, exclude the possibility of self-pollination of the plant or pollination of its random insects. To do this, on a selected flower that has not yet blossomed, remove the anthers. Then, on the stigma of the pistil, on the stamens, apply the pollen of the fuchsia variety you want to grow. Now carefully put a fabric cover on the bud or wrap it with a piece of gauze and fix it with a thread. In this form, the flower will stand for several weeks until the fruit ripens.

In order not to spoil your work, it is better not to touch the flower during the ripening of the fruit!

When the fruit is ready, remove it from the stem with tweezers. Carefully cut and remove the seeds. Dry the seeds for several days before planting them in the ground or storing them. It is better to plant seeds in tall containers with a lid. You need to sow the seeds on a damp surface of the substrate (peat plus coarse sand). Do not cover the seeds, just press them down a little with your fingers. Close the lid and place the container in a well-lit, warm spot for germination. But not in direct sunlight! It is desirable to sow fuchsia in early spring. The lack of lighting needs to be filled with additional lighting with fluorescent lamps. The seed germination temperature should be maintained between 18 - 22 °C. Don't forget to ventilate your greenhouse. If necessary, moisten the soil in the container with settled water using a fine spray bottle. Shoots will appear in a couple of weeks. Now the lid can be opened more often and longer - let the young bushes get used to room conditions. Make sure that the substrate does not dry out, the lighting is diffused and at least 12 hours. per day, the temperature should be comfortable.

After one and a half to two months, young fuchsia bushes need to be dived. Before transplanting plants, the substrate in the container is well watered. Seedlings are taken out along with the ground at the root system, one at a time, and planted in a separate pot. Abundantly watered. The land can be used purchased for flowering plants, or you can prepare it yourself from equal parts of sod and leaf soil, humus, peat and coarse sand. Remove pots with young growth from sunlight to shade - let them get used to new conditions gradually. After a couple of weeks, pots with young fuchsias can be placed in a permanent place prepared for them. Further care is regular watering, good lighting, comfortable temperature. In a month, not earlier, you can start to feed little by little with complex fertilizers for flowering plants. No more than once every 2 weeks. Don't forget to shape the crown of your flower. If you want it to be lush, strong and not too high, pinch its top.

Diseases

Fuchsia is rarely affected by diseases and insect pests. The main problems arise with careless care of the plant. We will introduce you to some of the problems that arise when growing fuchsia at home.

Fuchsia dropped buds. Likely causes:

  • insufficient or excessive watering;
  • rearrangement of a pot with a flowering plant to a new place;
  • insufficient lighting;
  • too high air temperature;
  • lack of nutrition in the soil.

Why fuchsia sheds leaves. Likely causes:

  • too dry air in the room;
  • high air temperature;
  • lack of moisture in the soil;
  • lack of nutrition in the soil.

Fuchsia has yellowed leaves. Likely causes:

  • waterlogging the soil (water the flower correctly, excess water from the pan must be drained. During the dormant period, reduce watering to a minimum).

Dark spots and small drops of dew appeared on the fuchsia leaves. Likely causes:

  • too high humidity in the room (it is necessary to reduce the humidity, ventilate the room more often, spray fuchsia with special preparations).

Fuchsia does not bloom. The reasons may be the following:

  • unfavorable conditions during hibernation;
  • late circumcision or not untimely pinching of fuchsia;
  • the plant is in direct sunlight;
  • little light (shoots will stretch out, be thin and frail, buds will be weak or not formed at all).
  • the pot is too big for the flower (fuchsia will bloom when its roots completely cover the entire earth in the pot. If the flower is still small and the pot is too large, most likely you will not see flowers this year);
  • the soil in the pot is poor and too light (such land is quickly compacted from irrigation, it has few useful elements. The root system is located along the edges of the pot, cannot braid the entire earthen clod in the center and suffers greatly from this);
  • the soil is too heavy, the roots develop poorly or completely stop developing (the plant does not receive moisture and nutrition, the soil turns sour, the roots rot);
  • the flower was overfed with nitrogen fertilizers (the green mass will begin to increase at the expense of flowering. Until the fuchsia has mastered the entire excess supply of nitrogen fertilizers, it will not bloom).

Pests

whitefly

If this problem arises, you will have to solve it with the help of folk remedies or chemicals, insecticides. It is necessary to spray the affected plants several times, with interruptions of 5 to 7 days, until the fuchsia is completely rid of sucking insects.

Monitor your plants, inspect them regularly for diseases and pests, and take action in time.

Video: fuchsia care

Conclusion

Bright, varied and multi-colored, indoor fuchsias are precious pieces in the collection of any amateur florist. If you have not yet purchased this flower and doubt your abilities as a grower, then this is in vain. Growing fuchsia is within the power of even a novice grower. Your time, knowledge and cost of caring for her at home will not be wasted. Fuchsia will thank you with fabulous flowering for many years!

Fuchsia is a tree-like shrub or small tree with beautiful flowers of various colors and shapes. It is so popular with flower growers that it is grown all over the world. This beauty comes from South America and New Zealand. Growing and caring for fuchsia in the garden does not cause much trouble if you choose the right planting site.

Fuchsia: features of growing in the garden

If you choose the right landing site, then fuchsia will grow well in the garden.

But you need to take into account some of its features:

  1. Fuchsia loves semi-shaded areas with neutral soil acidity.
  2. It is better to plant where direct sunlight falls only in the mornings and evenings.
  3. Young plants are planted in open ground in May or June.

Outdoor care

It is advisable to water it only in the driest periods, and to carry out top dressing 1-2 times during the summer with complex fertilizers for flowers.

In autumn, fuchsia is cut and prepared for a long winter.

Cut the bush to give the desired shape and enhance flowering. During the warm season, the formation of a crown may be required only if the goal is to grow a shrub, and the plant stubbornly strives to acquire the shape of a tree.

How to take care in winter?

V middle lane In Russia, in frosty winters, the fuchsia flower may suffer.

Features for caring for fuchsia in winter:

  • At the end of autumn, the stems are cut heavily, leaving 20-40 cm above the ground, and covered for the winter.
  • For shelter, spruce branches, tree branches, dry leaves, fragments of polyethylene, tarpaulin are used.
  • It is advisable to cover the sleeping fuchsia with snow as soon as possible.
  • In April, the shelter can be partially dismantled and completely removed in May with the onset of warm days.
  • Indoor fuchsia is transferred to a cold room in winter and watered only as the top layer of the earthy coma dries.

The nuances of growing fuchsia at home

Under certain conditions, the plant can be grown at home on the windowsill.

Growing tips:

  1. Most great importance has a temperature setting. Fuchsia, unlike other indoor plants, loves a slight coolness in summer and cold wintering from December to February. The optimum temperature for its growth is 18-20 degrees, and the permissible temperature is up to +23. In more warm room she sheds leaves and flowers. On hot July days, it is almost impossible to provide such a temperature on the windowsill, unless you turn on the air conditioner.
  2. The fuchsia flower is quite shade-tolerant, so it can be placed on the eastern, western, northeastern and northwestern windows, where, by the way, it is not so hot in summer. On window sills oriented exactly to the north, she may not have enough light.
  3. Flowering ends in November. At this time, it can be moved to a cold room. In winter, fuchsias are kept on the balcony at a temperature of 6-10 degrees. Under such conditions, the processes of photosynthesis slow down, so the plant ceases to need good lighting. For a short time (up to a month) it can be stored in complete darkness.
  4. Watering is done less frequently and is carried out only as the earthen coma dries up. Waterlogging is fraught with rotting of the root system.

If you provide everything you need, then the plant will bloom from mid-spring to mid-autumn.

Important! You should not turn the flower pot in order to correct its crown - he loves constancy.

houseplant care

Caring for this plant can be divided into 3 main stages:

  • Watering. Fuchsias love watering. Their frequency is determined by many factors, the main of which is the rate of drying of the soil. And this, in turn, depends on the humidity of the air, the volume of the root system, the coverage of the earthy coma with roots, the time of year, etc. The general principle is this: watering should be done when the topsoil dries up. There must be a drainage hole in the pot, and the volume of water must be calculated so that it saturates the entire earthen lump and appears on the pallet. In other words, water not very often, but plentifully. In the cold, evaporation decreases, so watering is reduced, sometimes up to two times a month, and in summer it is increased.
  • Top dressing. Adult specimens are fed only in the warm season with a frequency of 1-2 times a month. For these purposes, you can purchase universal organic fertilizers for indoor plants or decorative flowers. Do not fertilize too young crops and those that have recently been transplanted into new soil or into a pot with a larger capacity.
  • Air humidity is of considerable importance. Many amateur flower growers spray plants from a spray bottle to increase humidity. In fact, this is an ineffective technique, since the water evaporates in 15 minutes. Others put bowls of water around the pots. This option is better, but not the most rational, because to humidify the air by at least 10%, you will have to force the entire window sill with them. The best solution- place fuchsia among a large number of other indoor plants, because green leaves evaporate a lot of moisture during the growing season. To increase the effect in large pots, you can settle moss, the spores of which are easy to find on sale.

Important! If you provide fuchsia with everything you need, then it will bloom from mid-spring to mid-autumn.

flower reproduction

The most affordable and easiest way to propagate fuchsia is cuttings. For this, young shoots 10-20 cm long should be taken. The lower leaves are removed from them by about half the height. Cut off or shortened in half is also too large leaves. The cuttings are placed in a container with water and hermetically covered with plastic wrap or a transparent plastic cup. Fans of experiments can also root them in coarse-grained river sand or vermiculite. After 1-2 weeks, you can expect the appearance of roots. After that, you need to make a hole in the covering film to start accustoming the seedlings to dry air. Wait another week until their length reaches 2-3 centimeters, after which the cuttings can be planted in small pots.

The soil for fuchsias needs light, loose, rich in organic matter. You can buy universal soil for indoor plants and dilute it with garden soil. If the resulting substrate does not seem light enough and moisture-permeable, you can add perlite, vermiculite, coconut chips or sawdust (preferably pine sawdust) to it.

Types for open ground and home conditions

For indoor floriculture, breeders specially bred dwarf bush varieties of fuchsia.

There are about a hundred of them, differing in the shapes and colors of flowers, but the popular ones include:

  • Three-leafed;
  • Waist;
  • Anita;
  • Carolina;
  • Ampel.

The last of them has many clone varieties, which are even singled out in a separate category - ampelous.

For open ground, cold-resistant varieties of fuchsias are used: Graceful, Rikarton, Maggelanskaya. With a strong desire, street varieties can be grown at home, just keep in mind that their height can reach 1-1.5 meters.

Diseases, pests in garden conditions and at home

Fuchsia is a favorite treat for aphids, whiteflies and spider mites. Of the fungal diseases with which it is affected, gray rot and rust can be called.

  • Whitefly or aphids. If these pests settled on a green pet, then you can assume that you got off lightly. You can remove them with any drug, on the packaging of which it is indicated that it is an insecticide. It is more difficult to defeat the spider mite. The latter often affects houseplants, while aphids and whiteflies prefer open ground.
  • Among spider mites the most common is its red variety. Insects look like small red dots on the surface of the leaves. If you sprinkle them with fine water dust, they will begin to move. One of the most affordable drugs for ticks is Fitoverm. It only makes sense to apply it to early stages reproduction of the tick, since with a large population of the pest, the likelihood of the appearance of individuals resistant to this agent is high. Induce Fitoverm twice greater concentration than recommended on the package. After a week, spraying is repeated, even when it seems that the tick is no longer there. If after a month the tick is not detected, then there is hope that he was defeated.
  • If the pest managed to multiply and choose not only fuchsia, but also other plants, then more powerful means will be needed: Sunmite, Omite, Neoron, Oberon, Bitoxibalicin. These drugs have a moderately toxic effect on the human body, therefore, after treatment, one should not linger around the plant for a long time. It is better to put it in a room where no one will enter for 10-12 hours. But, even in the most advanced cases, the tick is removed forever after one spraying.
  • Rust- a fungal disease that is easily diagnosed by appearance leaves: they seem to be covered with rust. You can stop its spread with the help of Bordeaux liquid or other fungicides.
  • Gray rot looks like gray-brown spots on the stem or a light light gray coating on the leaves, especially young ones. If you do not fight it, then in the future the color of the affected areas becomes darker. Severely affected leaves are cut off, and plants, including healthy ones in the neighborhood, are treated with Fitosporin or Bordeaux liquid.

What problems can gardeners face?

When growing Fuchsia, problems sometimes arise:

  • The main difficulty is providing coolness in summer. In open ground, fuchsia is planted in the shade, and in apartments it is placed on windows that do not face south. If the flowers, leaves and tips of the stems of fuchsia become drooping without apparent reason, then it probably suffers from excess heat. If possible, it should be moved to a cool room or transplanted to another place.
  • The second difficulty is finding a suitable room for cold wintering, if the plant is indoor, or taking measures to prevent the tree from freezing in the open field during the frosty months. In the latter case, the issue is resolved by selecting a frost-resistant variety and shelter for the winter.

Despite some completely solvable difficulties, gardeners and flower growers around the world are striving to propagate fuchsia. And this is not surprising, because she is so beautiful! And everyone can join this splendor.

Most flower designers unanimously agree that the most striking plant that can be grown from seed at home is fuchsia. Many people like this tree for the rich color palette that its flowers show, which are distinguished by their original shape. She feels great not only in the garden, but also on the balcony, besides, she is easy to care for. Therefore, if you get information about the nuances of growing it, then the gardener will have a reason to rejoice, because he will be able to enjoy the view of a plant grown by his own hands.

Fuchsia is one of the brightest representatives of evergreens. perennial shrubs, which belong to the Cyprus family. To date about 100 species are known, which are found in the forests of New Zealand, Central and South America. Due to the high interest of gardeners in this flower, a situation has developed that at the moment tens of thousands of different varieties and hybrids of fuchsia are available for them, the flowers of which differ in a variety of shapes and colors.

For the first time the world got acquainted with this plant when information about the South American fuchsia trefoil appeared. The king of Spain, for whom this plant was the first to see this flower, received a high honor. was a gift from the conquistadors. Of the features of fuchsia, it is worth highlighting unusually narrow long flowers. This plant, which is easy to grow from seeds, has a property characteristic of all species of its family - unpretentiousness. Therefore, just one shoot is enough to get into the flower bed, and at the end of the season a lush flowering bush will grow out of it.

It is also important that it is very easy to take care of it, since for this you only need to monitor the soil moisture, starting with sowing seeds in it. Fuchsia is not left in the ground for the winter, so in the fall it is dug up, cut off and sent to a temporary container, which is placed in the basement at a temperature of + 5-8 degrees. With the onset of spring, when the last wave of frosts has passed, the flower is again returned to the flower bed.

Many original types of fuchsia have a very interesting color. It is formed by a mixture of purple, scarlet and brick tones, which is a separate shade, which is the characteristic color of fuchsia.

The plant is very different original form of flowers: they have cups and a corolla with bent edges. If you look closely at the calyx, you can see how long stamens protrude from it, while the petals are always shorter than the calyx. Fuchsia is distinguished by a large species diversity of colors: they can have ordinary and terry, plain, as well as two-color and three-color shades.

It is also noteworthy that after flowering, edible fruits begin to form on long petioles. Moreover, they not only have a pleasant sweet and sour taste, but can also be used in medicinal purposes. These berries can often be found on the table of South American Indians, as they are often used as a seasoning for meat dishes.

Depending on the shape of the plant divided into shrubs and trees. Their leaves can also vary: opposite, oval, pointed. Many often have jagged edges. As a rule, they do not differ in tone, since it is always the same - dark green. Recently, however, many new varieties of fuchsia have appeared that have a variegated color.

Growing fuchsia from seeds at home

Proper plant care at home involves main biological features fuchsia.

  • Although they are light-loving plants, it is best to keep them where they will be protected from direct sunlight. At the same time, partial shade can be a good place to grow fuchsias. However, one thing needs to be mentioned here. important point: for flowers that have a darker shade, you need to create a brighter lighting. Therefore, pale red varieties will grow best in an openwork shade, and for plants with red and purple flowers, it is better to choose a sunny place.
  • Preparing for planting plants, the first thing to do in a pot is to place drainage. To do this, you can use pebbles or expanded clay, laying it out no higher than 3-4 cm.
  • Fuchsia feels good if it is provided with enough moisture. However, at the same time, watering should be moderate, because when the water stagnates, the roots will begin to rot.
  • Attention should also be paid to the quality of the substrate used, which should have a loose and breathable structure. This can be achieved if, when preparing it, use leaf humus, taken in an amount of 1/3 of the volume. The best option soil mixture for fuchsia will look like this: soddy land, leaf humus, peat, sand in a ratio of 3:3:1:1.

Temperature regime

Extreme heat has a negative effect on plants. Therefore, it is best if the temperature does not rise above +18-24 degrees. Those owners who grow fuchsia at home will have to work hard to create favorable conditions in the summer. It is not recommended to constantly leave the flower in the sun. Fuchsia responds positively to spraying, but it must be carried out when the plant is not exposed to direct sunlight. The most favorable moment for this procedure is the time after sunset. This procedure is useful for plants that are grown in the room.

In winter, for fuchsia, it is necessary to create slightly different conditions that will correspond to its current state. At rest, the optimum temperature for the plant will be in the range of + 5-12 degrees. At this time, fuchsia is watered much less frequently, but you need to make sure that the earthen coma does not dry out. If in winter the room where the fuchsia was located was kept warmer than necessary, then it is possible that for the next season the owner will not be able to wait for it to bloom.

Care during the flowering period

When the plant begins to leave the dormant state, then in relation to it they begin to carry out the following activities:

  • Pruning. This operation is scheduled for early March. The scale of pruning is determined by the quality of this operation, which was carried out in the fall after flowering. In order for the plants to survive the winter, it is necessary to cut off the old branches by 2/3, and the new ones by 1/3. Be sure to trim all leaves, flowers and buds. In this case, during the spring pruning, you will have to cut the branches into two buds, dried branches and those that are directed inside the crown. If this pruning was not carried out in the fall, then in the spring it is carried out, adjusted for this moment;
  • Also in relation to fuchsia grown at home, it is necessary to carry out rejuvenating and shaping pruning. This will help keep the crown neat. This operation should not be neglected, because otherwise it will lead to the exposure of the crown, which will subsequently become loose and unattractive. Thus, for this, in the spring, after the formation of new branches, a double pinching is carried out. This will help to avoid excessive growth of the crown, which will certainly affect its shape. The last time pinching is carried out in the last decade of May. It is not recommended to schedule this operation for a later date, as this may lead to a postponement of flowering;
  • Transfer. This operation is carried out every year. However, you do not need to create maximum space for the roots. Indeed, in this case, all the forces will be spent on building up shoots, which will cause flowering to suffer. When choosing a pot for transplanting, you should choose a container that will be 3-4 cm larger in diameter and height than the previous one. If you plan to transplant old plants, then before placing them in a new place, they can be cleaned of old soil. However, in order not to bother yourself with this work, it is enough to remove only a layer of old earth 3 cm thick. It is even easier to do with young bushes under the age of 3 years. They just need to be transferred to new larger containers.

Usually fuchsias can please the owner with their flowering. for many years. However, this is only possible if he provides proper care for the plants. In this case, you can enjoy the view of fuchsia flowers up to 50 years. However, the gardener cannot avoid trouble if he is going to grow bush and ampelous fuchsia, since they do not retain their attractive crown shape for long. To avoid this, it is recommended to update every 4-5 years. There will be no particular problems with this, given that they can be easily propagated using green cuttings.

If the gardener wants to achieve lush and long flowering from fuchsia, then he must feed the plants regularly. This operation must be carried out once a week, using liquid fertilizers.

Especially useful are special dressings for fuchsia. Fertilizers can be applied up to the first opening of flowers. For this, a solution is prepared, for which 1/3 portion of the fertilizer is diluted in water.

What pests and diseases are typical for fuchsia?

Fuchsias, which are grown from seeds at home, most often get sick due to damage by spider mites and whiteflies. Having noticed the first signs of the disease, the following measures are taken: the flower must be treated with a warm shower with a temperature of + 36-38 degrees, after which it must be allowed to dry.

Disease control

In the event that this procedure was ineffective, you will have to use chemicals. To do this, you can take compositions such as Aktara, Agravertin or Fitoverm. Solutions are prepared from them, which are sprayed in three doses on the crown of the plant.

  • between treatments it is necessary to maintain an interval of one week;
  • after spraying, the crown must be covered with a plastic bag, and then placed in the shade so that it can dry there;
  • it is useful to process the substrate itself: it is watered with the same solution, but a double dose of the drug is used to prepare it. This allows you to destroy all pests in the soil and prevent the emergence of new ones.

In most cases, fuchsia is affected by diseases such as black leg, as well as rust on the leaves.

If available clear signs progressive disease, it is better to get rid of the plants. With regard to the substrate, it is recommended to carry out the treatment using bright pink potassium permanganate solution.

Conclusion

Fuchsia is one of the favorite plants of flower growers that are grown from seeds at home. It attracts many with ease of care and unusual decorative properties. Naturally, in order to get a beautifully flowering fuchsia, you need to get acquainted with the features of its cultivation. It is important not only to stock up on seeds, prepare a high-quality soil mixture for the plant, but also create favorable conditions for growth so that fuchsia can please the gardener with its flowering. But due to natural growing conditions, it is also important take care of the protection against diseases. Otherwise, one day this flower will wither and die.

"The last roses of autumn" was once called the famous Dutch breeder Herman de Graaff. Indeed, if you had to grow fuchsias in the garden, then you, of course, had the opportunity to make sure that they, along with late-flowering perennials, are a real decoration of the autumn garden. Traditionally, fuchsias are taken home from the garden and kept as an indoor culture. And few people know that fuchsias can winter in the garden! Polina Kiseleva, the creator of the online community of fuchsia lovers "Fuksimania", tells how to prepare them for wintering and what it can be like.

Before talking about wintering, a few words about growing fuchsias in the garden. It is noticed that they feel better in the open air. Flowering unstoppable all season! Over the summer, the bush becomes unrecognizable and grows well.

Ampel varieties are arranged in hanging baskets or on a tree trunk, where the cascade of flowers looks especially impressive (photo 1, 3, 4).

So, let's admire the late flowering of fuchsias. It is generally accepted that these are tender plants, and our autumn is not for them. But take a look at the pictures. In photos 2 and 3 flowering in October!

After the end of the summer heat, fuchsias have a "second spring". Autumn repaints them with marvelous colors, adding unexpected shades to the usual palette. But, having admired the autumn blossoms and looking at the weather forecast, we have to interrupt this "swan song". In our climate, fuchsias need rest.

In a city apartment, fuchsias do not rest there warmly, and they continue to grow. But from a lack of light they are strongly drawn out. In addition, the central heating radiators are too hot and dry. Fuchsias lose their leaves and become severely depleted. As a result, some plants do not survive until spring.

Many flower growers encountered this phenomenon and stopped growing fuchsias. At the same time, there are many examples of successful wintering, after which the bushes delight with lush flowering. Members of the club "Fuksimania" share their experiences.

ROOM WINTER

Traditionally, fuchsias are grown as houseplants, that is, they are left to winter at home. In this case, they need to find the brightest and coolest place where there is no sub-zero temperature.

In a city apartment, this can be an insulated balcony, where in severe frosts it is possible to turn on the heater to prevent minus. In such a place, fuchsias will stretch less with a lack of light.

Some flower growers have adapted to keep fuchsias at the entrance to the window. It is usually cool there, and the doors with a combination lock do not let "just anyone." One tip: the window in the entrance is dirty. Do not be lazy to wash it so that there is more light.

Another important plus of cold placement is the malicious whitefly fuchsia pest, which becomes a real scourge in warm (greenhouse) room conditions. At low temperatures, the whitefly loses its mobility, and it is easy to cope with it if you accidentally brought a pest from the garden. Of course, preventive treatment with insecticides before moving fuchsia from the street to the house is necessary.


With room wintering, it is important to remember that it is better to bring the plant into the house without waiting for a strong drop in temperature. If this is delayed, then the fuchsia on the street will naturally begin to prepare for the winter, and the unexpected return to the "room summer" may come as a shock to it. You need to be prepared for the fact that indoors she will begin to shed buds and leaves.

Often this is regarded as the death of the plant, and the bare fuchsia is thrown away. Often, the situation is aggravated by excessive watering, which they begin to carry out, believing that leaf fall is associated with a lack of moisture. Meanwhile, fuchsias are very sensitive to the bay and die from it more often than from any other causes. Therefore, watering during autumn leaf fall should be reduced, since a plant without leaves loses its former evaporative capacity.

Watering a plant with falling leaves and, in general, fuchsia in the autumn-winter period is necessary only after the soil in the pot has dried out by no less than half.

After the street, the plants are hard to tolerate and low humidity in the apartment with central heating. You can increase it with a humidifier or regular spraying.

Transplanting and pruning fuchsias in the fall, if they spend the winter in an apartment, is not advisable; this will provoke a new growth, which will be weak and elongated without illumination. Usually these procedures are postponed to the end of January-beginning of February. But if the soil in the pot has swamped during the season, then the top layer can be carefully removed and replaced with new soil.

Usually young plants tolerate indoor wintering more easily than older plants with a large number of thick woody shoots. Therefore, as an option, green cuttings can be taken from such plants before wintering and it is the young ones that are left for indoor maintenance. For the winter in suitable conditions from autumn cuttings, you can successfully grow and form new bushes that will delight you with flowering at the end of spring.

DARK COLD WINTER

In recent years, growers of our club are increasingly practicing dark cold wintering for fuchsias. This option frees up space on the windowsill (which is always lacking) and eliminates the need to care for fuchsia during the winter.

The ingenuity of enthusiasts knows no bounds, and there are a variety of options for cold wintering: refrigerators (traditional and built-in under the windowsill, as well as cooler bags), basements, attics, driveways, and so on. Whatever place is chosen for wintering fuchsias, it is important that the temperature there does not fall below the minimum minus values ​​​​(from zero to 3-5 degrees below zero), and the selected insulation (moss, newspapers, polystyrene ...) is enough so that the plants do not froze.

Some will find this too much of a hassle. But in the same way we store dahlia tubers. Fuchsias are perhaps even more resistant to cold. There are varieties that can overwinter even with a stronger minus. When planning a cold wintering, you can first ask about the cold resistance of a particular variety.

HOW TO PREPARE FUCHIA FOR WINTERING?

If fuchsia hibernates at home, then no preparation is required. It is necessary to pick up fuchsia from the garden as early as possible so that there is no strong temperature difference.

With a cold wintering, the opposite is true: fuchsia remains in the garden until the first frost, then the preparation will take place naturally. As the temperature drops, fuchsia itself begins to prepare for winter, reducing vegetation, flowering, and forming fruits.


Fuchsia berries, by the way, are edible. In the natural habitats of these plants in the countries of Central and South America, jams are made from them and wine is made. But if such preparations are not included in your plans, then in the fall it is better not to remove the berries. For a plant, fruiting is a sign of the completion of the cycle.

Many people are afraid of frost. But in foreign literature, I have come across recommendations to specifically leave fuchsias under the first small night minus so that low temperatures kill pests and pathogenic spores.

For bushes with mature woody shoots, small frosts are not terrible. Only tender greens at the ends of branches and flowers may suffer, but in any case they must be pruned before laying bushes in storage.

Branches usually have to be cut about half - all immature green growth is cut off, all leaves are removed (photo 5, 7). The root ball is also cut to a volume that approximately fits in two palms (more or less depends on the size and age of the plant).

The bushes prepared in this way are compactly stacked in boxes (photo 6). Plants can be transferred with wet moss, which partly plays the role of a heater and retains moisture.

As experience shows, it is the preservation of the earthen clod moist that is the key to a successful wintering with a cold method. If fuchsias die on such a wintering, then only from drying

To preserve moisture, you can use a film, laying each bush in a plastic bag, or tightening a box with fuchsias with a film "with a head". This procedure eliminates the need to check if the fuchsias have dried out, which is very convenient if the plants are left in the country and you do not have the opportunity to check and water them in winter. But "swamps" in such a box, of course, should not be, so that the plants do not rot. Sometimes mold may appear on the branches, but it disappears as soon as the boxes are brought out into the light and fresh air in the spring.

EXPERIMENTAL WINTERING IN THE TRENCH

For several years now I have been practicing wintering fuchsias in a trench right in the garden. I choose the driest and warmest place for this - the trench is located along the southwestern wall of the house, where snow melts first in spring. The parameters of my trench: depth 60 cm, width 60-70 cm, length about one and a half meters.

On the sides of the trench, I leave steps about 30 cm wide and about the same depth. I put fuchsia bushes at the bottom (photo 8). From above I fall asleep them with foliage, ostrich fronds, tops from flowers (photo 9). The pile just reaches the level of the side steps. On the steps (on top of the pile) I lay a couple of boards of suitable length so that they lie on the steps, and not on the plants (photo 10). I put a piece of film on top of the boards as a protection against water (photo 11). From above I fill the structure with earth (photo 12). The boards provide the necessary air cushion.

In such an impromptu storage, my fuchsias have successfully survived more than one winter, which surprises my acquaintances from Europe a lot. They are sure that the Russian winter is not for fuchsias, but a trench for the preservation of plants must be dug to a depth below the freezing level (according to our standards, this is one and a half meters).

Let's be honest: our winter, of course, was not the same, but there were frosts up to 28 C, and the fuchsias in my relatively shallow trench successfully withstood them.


The main problem of trench wintering is flooding with thawed and groundwater, therefore, the place for the trench must be chosen higher, and in the spring to dig a hole, without waiting for everything around to float. Through trial and error, I came to the conclusion that the optimal time is in the second half of March, early April (depending on the weather), if earlier, the ground is still too frozen, and later the water rises.

The main significant plus of the cold wintering of fuchsias (whether in a trench, cellar or any other storage facility) after it, fuchsia awakens new buds more actively, gives more abundant growth of shoots and flowers.

AND IT'S SPRING AGAIN!

After a cold wintering, fuchsia must be properly awakened. It is desirable that the temperature does not rise too sharply, that is, for some time hold the fuchsias in a room where it is cool.

The room should be bright, but direct rays should be avoided.

Roots should be inspected for damage and trimmed if necessary. Then soak the roots in water with stimulants, and sprinkle the aerial part with plenty of water. Adding magnesium sulfate powder to the spray bottle (according to the instructions) will help the fuchsia awaken new buds.

To speed up the process of awakening the kidneys, the bush can be covered with a bag. Thus, we will provide high humidity and prolong the action of magnesium sulfate.

You will learn more about wintering fuchsias in a cold way on the VKontakte page "Fuchsmania".

Polina Kiseleva, Nizhny Novgorod, photo by the author.

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