Maybe not an easy answer to this question :-) If it was a hanging basket type of fuchsia, these are rather tender and are not able to withstand winters outdoors in this area (especially THIS past winter!). Most are quite frost-sensitive and need to be brought into a protected environment for over wintering. More upright, shrub-like hardy fuchsias are typically well-suited to this area and if established in the ground, will return faithfully year after year, but are rather late to bud up and leaf out - I wouldn't expect to see much sign of life until late this month.

Depending on specific variety, both can produce flowers similar to the one depicted on the forum page.

To answer your question, if it is alive, then it depends on where you live. Your zone 8 designation covers a lot of territory. My Fuchsias leafed out about 3 weeks ago (I mean you can see the leaves, but they are still quiet small, mostly), but I am in a relatively mild location. You can sort of tell from the wood; if it is brittle and dried out, it's dead. But Fuchsias have amazing regenerative powers; I have had wood badly split from freezing recover from just a few surviving buds. They will also come back from any surviving buds below soil level, if any. They regrow fast and bloom on new wood.

The problem with hanging baskets is that they are exposed; their roots freezing will kill them. They also tend to have softer wood (hence the lax habit), although some hanging basket types are hardy in the ground (sometimes grown in moist sheltered rock gardens). If you did have one in a hanging basket (or for that matter a pot), what you were supposed to have done is to have taken it down, and either stored it in a cool, frost-free location (watering it from time to time; they can't survive drying out completely), or, what is fairly easy and usually reliable, you dig a trench, place the plant into the trench at an angle, bury the root ball, and cover the wood with a mulch. They are not picky but make sure drainage is reasonable.

Fuchsias by the way vary in coldhardiness and vigor, and there are many hundreds of varieties of them. They were bred from several species, one of which is Fuchsia magellanica which is quite coldhardy here. Fuchsias with smaller flowers and a typical Fuchsia coloring of scarlet sepals and eggplant-purple petals tend to have more of it in their ancestry, and tend to be more coldhardy. Fuchsias with delicate colors are sometimes--not always--more tender and less vigorous (probably from being overbred), although "Deutsche Perle" despite its delicate colors is fairly coldhardy, and I've seen a few others with orangy, salmoney, or delicate off-white purple shades that are hardy. There were a lot of hybrids from coastal California in the 1950s, and most of these are not very hardy because they were never selected for coldhardiness.

It also depends where you are. Locations near Puget Sound or Lake Washington can grow varieties and species that will freeze out or perform poorly in the hinterlands.

If you did lose it (I hope not), Earthworks Fuchsia greenhouses are open for retail business these days. They have a short window of opportunity. The proprietress can tell you which ones are hardy in the ground, and under what circumstances.

Hanging baskets are a lot of work I don't have time for. All my Fuchsias are uprights in the ground. I mulch them a little for safety and that's it. Not as prone to dying of drought either.

Good luck and have fun.

Here is a link that might be useful: Earthworks Fuchsias

thank you atash and gardengal. I am still waiting with patience .....