PlantFiles: Creeping Fuchsia, Trailing Fuchsia
Fuchsia procumbens

I've had this unusual fuchsia growing and flowering in my New York City garden for well over ten years. Over the winter it does get covered with a few inches of pine straw. It turns deciduous and the new spring growth breaks primarily from the tangle of above-ground branches, with a few new shoots coming from below. It's located a few feet before a south-facing brick wall in a raised bed with excellent drainage.

When I moved into my current house some nine months ago, I "inherited" several clumps of fuchsia procumbens that were trailing over a four-foot high rock wall. The plants reached the ground below, and looked as though they would continue going were it not for the foot traffic in the area. Throughout the summer and fall, they maintained lovely cascades of dense leaves and occasional pinkish-purple fruit.
With the onset of cold weather, they lost their leaves and, I must say, their charm, looking like ragged strands of matted hair. As I had other plans for the bed in which they were growing, I uprooted the established plants and transplanted them to various other areas of the garden. Several of the transplants are just now starting to show new leaves; I'm looking forward to seeing them in their glory again. Enough with the tangled tresses look . . .

Low growing, prostrate shrub from New Zealand.

Very curious little plant which doesn't look much like the Fuschias we are familiar with.

Has rounded, light-mid green leaves on slender stems. Bears upright, greenish yellow or orange tubes with green and purple sepals, the stamens bear a bright blue pollen. After the flowers come a large for the plant (1/2 inch), red plum coloured berry.

Flowers June-October

Likes a moist but well-drained, fertile soil in sun or partial shade.

Not reliably winter hardy but does survive in some areas of the UK without winter protection. We bring ours indoors over winter to be on the safe side.

A curiosity rather than a beauty.