Growing Season 2005

Welcome to the 2005 Growing Season. This year I have grown one hundred Fuchsia Standards. To show how the plants develop during the training period I have taken six photographs of each of the fifteen selected cultivars at fortnightly intervals on the following dates. To view the individual cultivars please click on one of the dates and select a cultivar.

May 10th - These photographs show the young plants at the start of the training period. The plants have been tied to canes to keep the stems growing straight. Any side shoots growing from the leaf axils on the stem have been removed.

May 24th - The plants have now made more foliage growth and continue to grow upright. Additional ties have been made to stop the stems from growing away from the canes. Any side shoots which started to grow on the stem have been removed as they appeared.

June 7th - The stems of the plants have now grown to the required length and the tips have been 'Pinched' out four side shoots have been allowed to grow from the axils of the top two leaf joints.

June 21st - The four side shoots can now be seen to have grown to start the formation of the plants head. Any other shoots have been removed to force all of the new plant growth into these four shoots.

July 5th - The shape of the head can now be seen to be forming. The four shoots are growing at right angles to each other and are starting to form a well balanced head. As each of the four shoots have grown two sets of new leaves, the tips of the four shoots have been removed.

July 19th - The older leaves growing upon the stems of the plants have been removed to encourage new head growth and complete the plants training.

Cultivar Heads The Photographs taken on July 19th should be compared with the ones taken on the 2nd of August during the flowering period. They are the same plants two weeks later with buds and flowers developing.