"seven" wrote in message
...
:
: I have been very surprised at the length of the flowering as all the other
: plants in my garden had stopped flowering months ago.
:
: I just hope the fuchsia I have starts looking better in the spring as it
: doesn't look too good just now out in the garden, but I really loved it
when
: it was in flower a few months ago. Thankfully I was advised by someone in
: this group to take cuttings, which I did, and they seem to be doing well,
so
: if the original doesn't survive the winter I should have some cuttings to
: plant up in the spring.
:
: Gardening is all about learning I suppose and I am having fun doing so
)
:
Violas and pansies are lovely aren't they and they come in so many different
shades and colour combinations and they do flower for such a long time.

I bought some winter pansies by mail order this year as mini plug plants and
potted them all up on arrival in individual small pots, but although they
have survived they haven't even developed a root system, let alone flowered.
I have since read that they can be hard to get and are not really worth
bothering with, so I shan't try again and will buy them already in flower.
I believe the winter ones are the same as the summer ones anyway, but
someone may correct me here. In a mild winter in my part of the country (SW
London) the summer ones will survive until the following year, as will
petunias, but they are never as good and get a bit straggly. If you've got
the time with pansies (and petunias) it helps to take off the flowers before
they go to seed, and the will continue to flower well.

It was very good advice to take cuttings from your fuchsia as, unless it is
a hardy variety, it will not survive frosts. The hardy ones are usually the
ones you see as quite big bushes. I don't know which part of the country
you are in, but you see lots in Devon and Cornwall and many are grown as
hedges in that part of the UK. I have two different ones in my garden and
cut them down quite hard in the spring so that they keep a good shape and
don't take over my tiny front garden.

Polyanthus are another good winter flower which will survive from year to
year here, but they gradually flower less, and after a few years it is worth
replacing them, in my opinion.

Sorry I've gone on a bit, but hope this is of some help to a new gardener.

K