The White House Garden: A History (of Sorts)

Fuchsia Madness

I hate to be asked what my favorite flower is, something I think is almost as bad as asking a parent which is their favorite child. But if forced, one of the top contenders on my list would have to be fuchsias. I can't say they are trouble-free. Some of mine have had issues when they've been transplanted, or they've been intolerant on the rare (but seemingly increasing) occasions when we have frost here. But for the most part, once they've settled comfortably into their pots, they bloom exuberantly and repeatedly, stay mostly pest-free, and seldom complain about much of anything. I currently have seven pots of fuchsias on my deck and expect to add many more over time.

One in particular has kept me in suspense, however. A year and a half ago I bought three small fuchsias in two-inch pots at the SF Flower & Garden Show. Two of them did great right away, filling out nicely and producing petite pink and white flowers on one, and purple and red flowers on the other. But the third, called Blue Satin, went code blue on me a couple of times and has had to be nursed back to health. In the last few months, it's finally seemed to gain a bit of vigor and I've waited almost patiently to see what its blooms would look like. The tag said that the sepals would be a bright white and the corolla would be indigo blue--but would it really be blue, or just another shade of purple as so often turns out to be the case with flowers that are advertised as blue? Today I got my answer:


It's gorgeous, totally worth the wait--but not blue! Ah, well. The quest continues.

And not to play favorites, here's a glimpse of a few of my other fuchsias that are presently in bloom:

And Now For Something Completely Different...