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Fuchsia magellanica
31 August 2010
It's commonplace now, and a mere hedge plant in the West Country, but every year in late summer I fall in love again with the basic Fuchsia magellanica from South America. It has many more glamorous relations, but are they prettier? There is something about flowers that dangle vertically, passively, almost you might say pleadingly. The long pointed scarlet petals almost hide the short purple petticoat and the filaments, also scarlet, stick out like antennae.
This particular plant used to be the grey and cream leaved cultivar F.m.gracilis versicolor. I should have reacted when it reverted to green leaves a year or two ago, but I find I like plain vanilla just as much. Now a bright magenta rose campion, lychnis coronaria, has arrived next door and the contrast would do credit to Christo.
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