I'm going to be watching my Fuchsia plants this year for stressors and trying to work on how to mitigate them. Any thoughts, comments, and advice would be greatly appreciated. At the very least, maybe this will help me track what does and doesn't work in my garden.

Our main stress here is heat. We have three months of above-100 F temperatures from July to October. Even with daily watering, and keeping the plants in shaded areas, it can mean strange things happen.


This is Lena, otherwise blooming as profusely as ever, but having oddly shaped petals, sort of truncated and curled up.

Another stressor may just be transplantation or some kind of fungus (?) ... here is a Fuchsia that turned its bloom back into leaves ... sort of.


And lastly, may be just bad timing and needing to learn about differences between species plants and modern hybrids. Variegated Procumbens was lush and full and beautiful for two years unprotected from the elements. Then, I stored the hanging baskets, including it, in my little greenhouse for the winter. Still no problem and they all began to flourish in the winter months. But, then, as spring arrived, Variegated Procumbens just took a bad dive. Nearly lost the entire plant and only one straggling piece survived.

It went from this to just that:


Lastly, a dear favorite, Wendy's Beauty, died last fall. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it was not as hardy as I thought? Anyone have any experience with WB? I'm thinking to try again with a new pot of it, but would hate to just doom it to failure. Has anyone had great success with an upright double white in both heat and temps just below freezing?

Hi Tina

My you do have it hot there. Anyway lets try to answer your question. The first looks like the result of insect damage in the bud stage. We have an insect here called the Capsid bug, which attacks the buds in early June, and causes this type of problem. The second is a natural condition called fasciation. cells divide erractically, often due to insect damage or frosts. it is perfectly harmless so dont worry. The third is a thing what we in Britain call SDS. (Sudden Death Syndrome). We have no idea what causes this. The plant just keels over and dies, no matter what you do to try to save it. Sometimes in a pot of five plants, it will just happen to one, and all the others are OK. Finally with white varieties, they do like shade. The minor thing with too much sun is they will go pink, and the worst they will die.

HTH

John

AHI John (Astoundingly Helpful Information!)

You somehow know the very next question, and see the details left unmentioned ... the variegated procumbens got decidedly pink and green, rather than cream and green, in the last half of the summer before its near-full demise. I thought the new coloring so pretty, and wished it to be some new sport But, could this just be sunburn that stressed it, and perhaps contributed to so much of it dying off?