FUCHSIAS IN PACIFIC COAST GARDENS 
ELOISE ROORBACK 
Author of “Tempering the Sunshine’’ (July, 1922, Garden Magazine), “Where 
Flowers Wander Happily at Will’’ (Dec., 1922, Garden Magazine), and other articles 
Like Fairy 'Frees with Lighted Lanterns the Fuchsias Flourish in Sun 
or Shade—“Ladies Eardrops” that Lure the Scintillant Humming-bird 
FUCHSIAS, as the gardenmakers of England and the 
^ United States know them, were developed to a myriad 
of lovely varieties, single, double, extravagantly double, 
tall, medium, dwarf, in less than fifty years from the 
introduction of the simple one with red tube and sepals with rose 
or purplish petals, and 
the one with creamy 
white sepals and rose or 
pink petals. 
They are plants of 
our own Continent and 
occur from Mexico to 
Chile. On the mountain 
slopes of Central and 
South America, asso¬ 
ciated with their boon 
companions, the Bego¬ 
nias, they attain a height 
which would have made 
even Alice in Wonder¬ 
land marvel if she could 
have lifted her eyes to 
the tree-tops where mil¬ 
lions of fairy-like bells 
hang far beyond reach. 
On those warm slopes where the rain falls during 
every month of the year, Fuchsias find just the 
moist, shady environment they love most and here 
in California they can be given conditions which suit 
these lovely plant travelers almost as well. Grown in 
a lath-house with its protected, warm and moist atmos¬ 
phere, or on the north side of a house, or at the edge of 
a pergola, associated with Begonias, Impatiens, or 
Ferns, they become things of superb and poetic beauty. 
G IVEN a loose, rich soil, abundance of water and 
kept well fed during the blossoming or summer 
months, Fuchsias reward the grower with amazing 
growth and wealth of bloom. The blossoms often at¬ 
tain an enormous size and the seed-pods (some of which 
look not unlike small plums and seen when the plant is 
in full glory) combine to arrest the attention of every 
plant lover. They are splendidly generous of bloom, 
are vigorous growers, and will branch, climb, or trail 
at request of competent trainer. Whenever plantsmen see 
photographs of Fuchsias from English gardens, they imme¬ 
diately think of the south coast or the Isle of Man, for 
there they attain their greatest perfection as outdoor plants. 
San Francisco holds a somewhat similar position in Cali¬ 
fornia to that of Southampton in England, as far as Fuch¬ 
sias are concerned, though all through the Southland they 
make splendid showings, reaching to the top of second story 
windows with ease and swiftness. They ilourish in the salt 
winds which prove so fatal to many plants, they like the 
coolness of northern nights, and shake out their leaves 
gratefully to moist fogs. San Francisco may truthfully be 
called the metropolis of the Fuchsia world, but nevertheless 
in San Diego they make an amazing growth and are one of 
the most desired and satisfactory of garden plants. 
Most Fuchsias in San Diego are practically deciduous. 
FASCINATING DIVERSITY 
AMONG FUCHSIAS 
Jupiter (left) in most unmascu¬ 
line petticoats of blue-purple, 
offset by sepals and stamens of 
characteristic Fuchsia red. Ara¬ 
bella (right) of drooping grace 
and deep pink petals, sepals and 
stamens very pale pink, almost 
white. Phenomenal (centre) with 
fluty ballet-skirt petals and red 
sepals. Gracilis (lower 
centre), its slender pur¬ 
ple petals, red stamens 
and sepals fashioned like 
a delicate old eardrop 
They require careful training when young for when old the 
stems are brittle and will not respond so readily to persuasion. 
They should be severely pruned every winter so they will branch 
out well in spring, keeping a good central stem from which 
branches can push out in every direction the grower indicates by 
stake or string. Care 
should be taken to get 
a good skeleton and not 
allow it to become 
scraggly, bent, or un¬ 
gainly. In San Diego 
they are frequently 
trained, espalier-wise, 
against a wall or made 
to decorate the north 
side of a house, and in 
such cases they can be 
made to branch out from 
a central stem and spread 
over a large area with 
their delicate blossoms 
tipping from every stem 
and branch. 
Miss Kate Sessions, 
whose plants of preferred 
varieties may be found in 
almost every San Diego 
garden, recommends them heartily for north walls where 
she declares they do their best. Yet she says, with 
amused twinkle of the eyes, she has seen them growing 
to perfection out in the open in full sun, and on the 
south side of a house! As a matter of fact they will 
grow anywhere, given abundance of water and plenty 
of food. 
Having just begun a garden of my own and wishing to 
specialize on Fuchsias and Begonias, 1 went to see Miss 
Sessions, headquarters for every kind of information 
about every kind of plant, and what she said so inter¬ 
ested me that 1 now have a lath-house and have started 
some plants for myself. The facts in this article have 
been borrowed from her years of experience with these 
favorite plants. With her as guide I went into many 
San Diego gardens and saw Fuchsias covering high walls 
as though they were some new kind of climbing Rose, 
their rich green foliage liberally lightened with delicately formed 
and daintily colored blossoms that flowed down and over the 
plants in cascades, like flowing water over green banks. I saw 
them massed along driveways, trained against house walls like 
vines, standing like fairy trees laden with lighted lanterns, bil¬ 
lowing over gateways, edging pathways in compact neat grace, 
the baby F. minima being used in the latter way. 
F UCHSIAS are of two types, tall and low, and have the 
sepals of one color and the petals of another. F. gracilis 
is a good example of the tall-growing type and with its long, 
slender tube and sepals of a characteristic fuchsia-red and long 
conspicuous stamens hanging like a fringe from the purple 
corolla, it becomes perhaps, the most artistic and greatest 
favorite of them all. It is familiarly known as “Ladies Ear¬ 
drops” and attracts humming-birds in great numbers. It surely 
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