I'm a little late updating the website this month. I've been very busy trying to organize a visa to go over to Georgia and be with my new wife Kathy. This is taking a lot of my time up and I'll be glad when it's all done and dusted. The standard fuchsia plants are looking pretty good for the month of June, if they carry on growing this way, they will be very good looking plants by the time of the shows in August. This first shot is of some that I have against the solid fuel bunkers by my kitchen door, there are two plants of Herald and two of Star Of Pink. Please note they are standing in pieces of 12" clay sewer pipe, this gives them some stability in the high winds we have been getting this summer. As a further support I have tied the stems together with nylon stockings and then tied the end to a post, this should keep them reasonably stable.

Here are two plants of Star Of Pink growing in large 20" pots. I have been growing these two plants for more years than I care to remember, but they always do well in the shows. Every spring I cut them back very hard, both top growth and root growth. I then remove most of the compost from the roots and re-pot them in fresh new compost. They reward me every year by doing well and winning prizes.

This is something new - I was visiting a friend of mine and admired a hardy fuchsia he had growing in his garden. I wasn't sure of the name, but I think it's Hawkshead, I had a plant of this some years ago. Anyway, I told Dave, my friend, that I thought it might make a very good standard that may win shows, and asked for some cuttings. I grew the plants on last year and didn't let them flower, however this year I'm going to let them go and see how they perform. Right now they're looking great, and if they keep going this way they'll be really good looking plants by the time of the August shows. I'd like to win a show with one, just to prove my point. :)

Here's a shot looking up the garden towards the house, I live on the ground floor of the building you can see, the open door is the entrance to my kitchen. As you can see there are plants everywhere, I'm a big believer in getting all my plants out of the greenhouse and into the garden in the summer. I don't have a lot of free space, but I fit them in to any spare corner I can find. The pieces of black plastic tubing are another way of preventing wind damage, standing plant-pots in them stops them being blown around the garden.