Growing Fuchsias: Tips at a Glance
Flowering fuchsias are particularly useful for adding a zing of color to shady garden beds. The ones most often sold at garden centers are tropical fuchsias (USDA zones 8 to 10) and are frequently grown as annuals or houseplants.
- Type Tropical flowering shrub
- Lifespan Annual or perennial
- USDA Zones 6-11
- Light Full or partial shade
- Water Keep soil moist
- Soil Fertilize monthly
- Design Tip Happy in containers
- Companions Coleus, ferns
- Peak Season Year-round
Fuchsias: A Field Guide
With their dangly flowers that look like brightly colored chandelier earrings, tropical fuchsia shrubs and trees are native to South America—but feel just as much at home in misty, temperate climates such as Ireland’s, where Fuchsia magellanica grows wild alongside roads.
With more than 100 known species and temperaments that can range from fussy to hardy, fuchsias are useful plants for both garden beds and containers. “Combine them with other shade-tolerant plants such as oxalis, begonias, lobelia, coleus, or hardy geraniums” in shady spots or pots, recommends our contributor Jeanne Rostaing.
Classified as frost-tender perennial plants, fuchsias will succumb in cold climates unless you bring them indoors to wait out the winter. Depending on the variety, fuchsias will be hardy in USDA growing zones 6 to 11, with the majority of typical plant-nursery tropical cultivars happiest in growing zones 8 to 10.
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