Fuchsia Illusion

The Fuchsia Illusion is a non-hardy bush fuchsia with pretty flowers with white sepals and a lavender corolla striped with white, with long stamens. Its flowers are large for this type of plant. This plant forms a true small bush with an upright habit, which is animated by numerous semi-double bells from early summer to August, on medium green foliage. An elegant and bright fuchsia to illuminate a dark area of the garden.

Hybrid fuchsias are numerous, and most of them are derived from Fuchsia magellanica and Fuchsia fulgens, sometimes with the contribution of Fuchsia triphylla, which adds length to the flowers. All these herbaceous to woody plants, reasonably hardy and upright with a relaxed branching habit, belong to the Onagraceae family. They are native to South America, the Caribbean, and Australia. The Fuchsia Illusion was obtained by K. Charles in the United States in 1966. It quickly forms a bushy shrub with upright and branched stems, reaching a height of 1.20 m. The stems, initially herbaceous, become woody as the season progresses. They bear abundant foliage, medium green in color, composed of leaves grouped in 3 or 5, lanceolate, rather narrow. These deciduous leaves fall in autumn and reappear in spring. The flowering takes place from June to August. Its flowers are of medium size. Each one has a calyx, a kind of long tube extended by 4 long and recurved sepals, surrounding a semi-double corolla composed of wide and short petals. The calyx is white while the corolla is lavender-blue, striped with white. Long lavender-pink stamens complete the harmony of colors.

This Fuchsia Illusion is a perennial shrub that can only be grown in open ground in milder regions. Its hardiness is around -5°C when care is taken to mulch it in winter. The aboveground parts can be particularly affected. Fuchsias go well with hydrangeas and the foliage of ferns, rodgersias, orange heucheras or hostas. In a flower pot, they can be accompanied, for example, by ivy, lobelias or begonias.

Discovered in Santo Domingo in the 17th century and acclimatized in Europe, it was named Fuchsia (and not Fuschia) in honor of a German botanist named Fuchs. Native to South America, botanical fuchsias have gradually been multiplied. There are now believed to be tens of thousands of hybrids!