PlantFiles: Fuchsia fulgens
Fuchsia fulgens

Not my plant directly, but across the street there has been a Fuchsia fulgens and you could say it has been neglected for a number of years as no one lives in the house now but remarkably it keeps flowering year after year.

What is perhaps more remarkable is this is actually growing in the UK (equivalent zone 9a). Despite a minimum temperature of -2C last winter (some of the coldest temperatures ever witnessed here), it has flowered again this year. Perhaps fulgens is actually hardier than people suggest!

Upright shrub with spreading branches from Mexico.

Has ovate to heart shaped, pale green, slightly downy, red toothed leaves.

Triphylla group (long tubed flowers). Bears pendant terminal racemes of thin flowers upto 2 inch long, has pink/salmon or dull red tubes and pale red sepals fading to green at the bottom and bright red corollas.

Fruit are oblong and turn deep purple when ripe.

Minimum temperature is 41F, best kept in a cool greenhouse in frost prone areas.

I've tried to propagate this one from cuttings for a number of years and have never yet managed to keep them more than a week. However, I've spoken to several Fuchsia growers who have and say there is nothing difficult about it :)