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. Its attractive pointy leaves remain bluish-green in color with showy creamy white variegation and tinges of red throughout the year. The crimson stems are very colorful and add to the overall interest of the plant.

Landscape Attributes

Firecracker Fuchsia is a dense multi-stemmed annual with an upright spreading habit of growth. Its medium texture blends into the garden, but can always be balanced by a couple of finer or coarser plants for an effective composition.

This is a relatively low maintenance plant, 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. Although it's not a true annual, this plant can be expected to behave as an annual in our climate if left outdoors over the winter, usually needing replacement the following year. As such, gardeners should take into consideration that it will perform differently than it would in its native habitat.

This plant 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 is a fine choice for the garden, but it is also a good selection for planting 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 growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.