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    Fabulous fuchsias!

    May 05, 2020 5 minutes

    This week it’s:

    THREE weeks before the coronavirus travel bans came, I was in Costa Rica in Central America, looking at wild fuchsias. This is one of the most northerly points on the American continent where fuchsias are known to be indigenous; they are common throughout Central and South America–and, oddly, New Zealand. In the wild there are more than 100 natural fuchsia species, whereas in our gardens there are several thousand hybrids and cultivars. Here in the UK, fuchsias are among our most popular of hobby plants and, as the flowering season will soon be upon us, this is a good time to look at them.

    ■ Fuchsias were not discovered until 1696. Plants were brought back to Europe, but the first hybridising didn’t occur until 1825, and it is from those crosses that

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