Plant Library

Other Names:  Honeysuckle Fuchsia, Upright Fuchsia

Description:

A striking fuchsia variety featuring nodding flowers of salmon and orange, against the green and cream variegated foliage with red veins; very attractive to hummingbirds; a dense, self-supporting round shrub that has shown to be resistant to mites

Ornamental Features

Firecracker Fuchsia features dainty nodding orange trumpet-shaped flowers with salmon overtones along the branches from late spring to mid fall, which emerge from distinctive scarlet flower buds. It has attractive creamy white-variegated bluish-green foliage with hints of red. The pointy leaves are highly ornamental and remain bluish-green throughout the winter. The crimson stems are very effective and add winter interest.

Landscape Attributes

Firecracker Fuchsia is a dense multi-stemmed evergreen shrub with an upright spreading habit of growth. Its average texture blends into the landscape, but can be balanced by one or two finer or coarser trees or shrubs for an effective composition.

This is a relatively low maintenance shrub, and should only be pruned after flowering to avoid removing any of the current season's flowers. It is a good choice for attracting hummingbirds to your yard. Gardeners should be aware of the following characteristic(s) that may warrant special consideration;

• Insects

Firecracker Fuchsia is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Accent
• Mass Planting
• General Garden Use
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Firecracker Fuchsia will grow to be about 30 inches tall at maturity, with a spread of 3 feet. It has a low canopy. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 20 years.

This shrub does best in partial shade to shade. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. To help this plant achive its best flowering performance, periodically apply a flower-boosting fertilizer from early spring through into the active growing season. It is not particular as to soil pH, but grows best in rich soils. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America.

Firecracker Fuchsia makes a fine choice for the outdoor landscape, but it is also well-suited for use in outdoor pots and containers. With its upright habit of growth, it is best suited for use as a 'thriller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the center of the pot, surrounded by smaller plants and those that spill over the edges. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when grown in a container, it may not perform exactly as indicated on the tag - this is to be expected. Also note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.