On Fri, 30 Apr 2004 09:26:39 +0100, Sacha wrote:

FF29/4/04 10:21


On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 21:11:32 +0100, Sacha
wrote:

FF29/4/04 7:30
snip
Being a new-ish gardener and a bit of a fool I bought 8 hardy fuchsias for a
tenner
last August. Planted them out (far too late) and sat back & waited. That
late
snow we
had had me cussing good and proper. Well, the headcount is better than I
expected.
Four have definitely survived, two are maybes (or wishful thinking) and the
two
Thalias were probably doomed from the start.
A good result all in all.

Liz

Are you *quite* sure that you were sold F. 'Thalia' as hardy?

Absolutely. And I found a website that said they might be. As we're pretty far
south
and south-facing I thought I'd risk it. They were all an impulse buy anyway.

Liz

I'm surprised you received any assurance of that sort. While we have
over-wintered Fuchsia boliviana here as an experiment, it took a long time
to grow back from the base and didn't flower.
Fuchsia Thalia I have lost in my garden in Jersey, so it would be quite
incorrect to sell it as hardy in UK, IMO. The point here is that *some*
people might be lucky but most wouldn't. If people ask us about the
hardiness of a plant that we think a bit suspect we ask them where they
live. If it's e.g. Salcombe there's a fair chance of some
not-entirely-hardy plants being happy but it's a risk they have to decide
upon. With other plants we will simply advise them to not even think about
it! The other day I stopped two young people starting a new first garden
from buying a Hardenbergia and a Thunbergia because they love the colours.
But what a disaster *that* would have been. And yes, the labels do say
'tender'!

Oh well, maybe I made a mistake somewhere along the way. That's nothing new
rueful grin.

Thanks for the advice.

Liz