| Can anything be done to encourage foliation in indoor fuchsias?
Last year I tried overwintering my collection of 40 or so fuchsias in my garage, but lost about half of them. This depressed me terribly, and I’ve therefore taken a different approach this winter: overwintering them indoors as houseplants.
Several cultivars are absolutely thriving and continuing to bloom heavily (e.g., Voodoo, Ram’s Royal, Queen Esther, White Knight’s Pearl, Celia Smedley, Autumnale, Cascading, Machu Pichu). Other varieties aren’t doing as well. Many of these have lost all or much of their leaves, either immediately upon arrival in the indoor environment or some weeks/months later. I’m assuming that this resulted from shock and subsequent over-watering, and I lost several plants.
Now that I’ve corrected the over-watering, several of my "babies" are showing new growth. Others, however, are budding even though they aren’t producing new leaves. (The buds reach maturity in some cultivars but shrivel in others.) Some aren’t doing anything at all. The latter (which include Flamenco Dancer, Pink Galore, and Peppermint stick) are simply a tangle of wood/sticks with no leaves; they are still green underneath the bark, however, so I presume they aren’t dead.
I can’t believe that they’re going dormant, since they’re in a 65-degree room. Nevertheless, I’m clueless about how to get them to leaf out. Any suggestions?
-Crazy
PS. Please don't suggest that I try cuttings next winter. My success with cuttings has been very limited. I've tried water, soil, vermiculites, floral foam, you name it. None of them worked very well, so I'd rather not rely solely on cuttings. |
