Re: Fall Color, Fall Berries
> Thanks, Louise, for the wonderful walk with you. I felt I was along side
> feeling the crist, cool air and tasting the wild strawberries!
>
> The berries in the fall garden are so lovely now. Fuchsia procumbens has
> dusky rose berries that are bringing the Stellars Jays to my rock garden to
> glean. They are pesky sometimes and raid my seedling pots, picking out
> choice tiny bulbs, the rascals! They are so beautiful with their rich inky
> blue and black attire that I have a very large soft spot for them.
>
> I thought that it might be nice to save the seed from the creeping fuchsia
> but wonder if it is ephemeral as so many of the genus are. This is an odd
> but charming plant with brown-tipped yellow flowers that remind me more of
> a scrophularia than a fuchsia. It can get rampant here but I give it some
> room in a low rock wall for more robust dwellers than typical rock garden
> plants. The array of fine threads of bare stems draped over the rocks in
> the winter is such a pleasant sight that I do not cut it back until late
> winter. In fact I leave all of my collection of fuchsias pretty much alone
> until March or even April. Some are marginal for hardiness and seem to
> suffer less in the cold if left with generous stems.
>
I've tried to grow Fuchsia procumbens down here in hot Southern
California, and although it stays alive, it never really thrives so your
description as rampant and robust is a thrill to hear! Ah, for the moist air
and soil of the Pacific Northwest!
The only fuchsias that last from year to year down here in our inland valley
gardens are the upright single flowered ones that we can plant in the ground
in a shady spot that tends to stay moist. We never lose them over winter,
always over hot, dry summer!
How I long to try some of those beautiful species fuchsias, such as F.
boliviana or F. corymbiflora, or F. fulgens!
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Jan Smithen, gardening teacher
California Arboretum Foundation
jansmithen@earthlink.net
Sunset zone : 19
USDA zone : 10
Visit the California Arboretum homepage at :
http://www.arboretum.org/
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