Hi Decogrl

Well done for keeping your plant through the winter.

It seems you are doing most things correctly, when you say that you have a Âstandard fuchsia I take it that it is a Âbush type and not a standard (i.e. grown on a single stem) it is just a question of terminology.

You also say that it has doubled in size. What you need to realise is that fuchsias will only flower on new growth, so unless your plant is showing signs of breaking low down on the stems you may end up with a bit of a Âbare bottomÂ. This is why we always recommend that you trim the plants back when you bring them out of their winter quarters.

Now that your plant is Âshowing green you can make the decision of either having flowers early in the season or doubling the flowering capacity of the plant but getting flowers later in the summer. If you decide to leave the plant and get the flowers early this could be in approximately 6  8 weeks if it is a single variety, 8  10 weeks for a semi double, 10  12 weeks for a double and up to 14 weeks for a Triphylla. By taking out all the growing tips (what we term stopping) you wil double the plants flowering potential but you will delay the flowing times as above, from the date of stopping.

You should also by now be feeding your plants with a weak high nitrogen feed every second or third watering.

Another one of those situations where it is up to you to decide on the action to take.

Hope this helps and let us have a photograph when it is in full bloom.

Tight....