Want to keep your fuchsia plants in your hanging baskets and containers blooming strong all summer long?
Fuchsias are one of the most beautiful of all summer annuals to grace the landscape. Their bright, colorful teardrop blooms can be stunning when flowering big in pots, containers and hanging baskets.
Fuchsia plants are prized for their multi-colored flowers. When in full bloom, the plant almost appears as though it is exploding in a bevy of fireworks cascading down from its foliage above. Especially when they are planted in hanging baskets and pots where they can spill over the edges!
But if there is one drawback to growing fuchsia, it’s that many gardeners find them hard to manage by mid summer. Without proper care, fuchsia baskets and pots that were once completely covered in blooms in the early spring can often become wiry and weak by July or August.
As the plant begins to fade and the blooms fall off without being replaced, many gardeners assume the plant has simply reached the end of the line.
Keeping Your Fuchsia Plants Beautiful
But here’s the good news – with just a few simple tips and tricks, fuchsia plants can thrive not just into the middle of summer, but right up until the first frost.
Even better, the plants can do so with a recurring flurry of beautiful blooms that continue to bring life to wherever you grow them. With that in mind, here is a look at how to get the most out of your fuchsia plants, including how to keep them flowering all spring, summer and fall long!
How To Keep Fuchsia Blooming Strong
#1 – Locate Fuchsia For Success!
Many times, when fuchsia plants fail, it is their growing location that is to blame. Simply put, fuchsia will not grow well when it receives intense sunlight.
Not only can fuchsia not handle all day sun, it also needs to be spared full sun at mid-day. The scorching hot afternoon sun is simply too much for its tender foliage and blooms to handle. It can dry the plants out quickly, and make it hard to absorb the nutrients it needs.
On the other hand, by no means is fuchsia a full shade plant. In fact, it needs and wants sunlight. But the key to success is to give it that sunlight in moderation. And and even more, to supply it at the right time of day.
For best results, locate your fuchsia where it will receive early morning or late day sun. This sunlight is much cooler than middle of the day sunlight. It will more than provide the light needed for better blooming, without causing the stress that mid day heat can bring.
#2 – Soil & Watering – How To Keep Your Fuchsia Blooming
Nearly all fuchsia varieties that grow in containers and hanging baskets are tropical plants. And as a tropical plant, they need humidity and moisture to thrive.
When a fuchsia plant dries out, both the leaves and roots begin to shrink and shrivel. Unfortunately, once this occurs, it makes it even more difficult for the plant to absorb moisture. The result is a plant that grows weaker by the day, and produces little to zero new blooms.
The key to success all lies in providing proper hydration. Fuchsia loves to grow in soil that is moist, but not saturated or flooded. Most fuchsia will require water daily to stay strong and healthy. If you are growing in an extremely warm climate, they may even require a second daily watering.
#3) Fertilizing – How To Keep Fuchsia Blooming
Fuchsia plants are one annual that truly needs additional nutrients to continue thriving. To produce those long, gorgeous flowers, it takes a lot of nutrients. And a constant supply of them!
Because fuchsia are almost always grown in containers or baskets, the contained soil quickly becomes depleted of the nutrients the plant needs to continue blooming. But by providing a slow and steady dose of energy, you can keep the plant in full bloom.
The real key with fertilizing fuchsia successfully is to power the plant low and slow. Too much fertilizer all at once can create excessive root and foliage growth – all at the expense of more blooms.
Instead, by supplying a weakened dose of liquid fertilizer every 7 to 10 days, the plant can steadily take in the nutrients it needs for proper blooming.
Compost tea is an excellent choice for powering for Fuchsia. The balanced nutrient levels in compost tea are perfect for keeping the plant with a slow and steady growth rate. You can also use a high quality liquid fertilizer as well. Product Link: Performance Organics All Purpose Plant Nutrition
#4) Deadheading & Pruning – How To Keep Fuchsia Blooming
Deadheading and pruning are two tasks that are vital to a Fuchsia plants ability to produce new blooms. As blooms begin to fail, remove them to keep the plant’s energy focused on new production. See : How To Deadhead Plants
Allowing spent or decaying blooms to remain allows the plants to waste energy trying to repair them. But once they are removed, the plant will quickly divert the energy to new flower production.
Pruning your plant every so often also will play a big role in new blooms. Fuchsia plants only produce new blooms on new growth. By pruning or trimming the plant back a few inches on a regular basis, you will force new growth and new blooms.
In fact, if your plant has slowed its new bloom production, simply cut it back three to four inches all around – within a few weeks, it will begin to flower strong on all of the new foliage growth.
Keep An Eye On Your Soil
Finally, sometimes your fuchsia plants simply need a larger space! As spring rolls into summer, many hanging basket and container plants run out of room for their roots. (See: How To Give New Life To Worn Out Hanging Baskets)
Fuchsia need fertile, well draining soil to grow at their peak. Unfortunately, by mid-summer, many fuchsia plants growing in containers simply run out of soil room and nutrients.
Root bound plants can’t absorb the moisture and nutrients they need to survive. No matter how often you water or fertilize, once they have outgrown their space, they will continue to fail.
The answer for root bound plants is to replant them into a larger vessel. Select a container or basket that is at least 1/3 larger in size. Use a high quality potting soil and replant the cramped plants into their new and larger space.
With this simple process, you will be amazed at how quickly your fuchsia regain their strength and vitality. Here is to getting the most out of your fuchsia plants this year, and to keeping them blooming beautiful all season long!
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