Ever try growing one? Just take a cutting and train just one stem. When tall enough; pinch it and let the side shoots grow.

They usually refer to fuchsia "trees" as standards.

Have you tried Home Depot? IÂm not kidding; my local Home Depots carry them, even though fuchsias are annuals here in Utah. On occasion, I do see Firecracker standards in my local nurseries, but Home Depot generally carries as good if not a better selection of larger fuchsia plants. (They never have starts; those seem to be the territory of the nurseries.)

By the way, all of my Home Depots standards come from a California company called El Modeno Gardens. They have a website (http://elmodenogardens.com). You could try contacting the company about arranging to have some fuchsia standards shipped to your local Home Depot. Or, if you notice that your local Home Depot carries their plants, you might talk to them about a special order. (The Home Depots in Utah get many different types of plants from El Modeno Gardens. If you donÂt see any fuchsia, it doesnÂt necessarily mean your store doesnÂt deal with this company. Look around for some tags -- the plant markers in the dirt, not the labels pasted on the side of the pots. El ModenoÂs are white with a green logo that clearly identifies the name of the company.)

Hope this helps! Good luck!

PS. I'm totally jealous that your local nursery will overwinter your plants. I overwintered in both my garage and in my office at work. (I don't have the indoor space at home.) I've only had a 50% success rate with both methods...

Crazyforcorelli, Thanks so much for the info! You've given me some great ideas. I will call Home Depot tomorrow. Another idea, my husband is going to fly to Seattle and get a motorhome (we can save thousands buying in the lower 48 and driving it back). Maybe there are suppliers in the Washington area? I will call those Home Depots too. I'll keep you updated!!!!

I think I know the fuschia tree you're looking at. I have one in my back yard. The flowers are small pink/purple but it produces them all year long in just huge bunches. The hummingbirds love it.

These things are like weeds in San Francisco. Very hardy and will self seed apparently. Mine is about 12-14' high and perhaps 10' wide and they seem to like to produce twisty trunks with a lot of character. Kind of tough to get a real upright habit but you can do it.

I've had branches break off the thing and just cut the end clean and planted it (no rootone even!) and with lots of water the thing would root and take off. If you can't find what you're looking for on your Seattle trip let me know and I can try and sent you a cutting.

I wish I could find these in a different color. I'd like to plant a couple more "tree" fuschias but would prefer something that had a different color.

I donÂt know where Seattle is in relation to Covington, WA; however, The Earthworks resides there, and it is easily one of the 3 best fuchsia nurseries. (Fuchsias Galore and MonnierÂs Country Garden are the other two; theyÂre in Northern California and Oregon, respectively.) Before you send the hubby out, however, you should check out their web site -- http://www.fuchsias.net/index.html -- or maybe give them a call.

Good luck on your mission, and keep us posted.

I saw the same "Fire Cracker" that crazy for correli saw, but at Fred Meyers. One thing that might help is that they arent realy "trees" they are upright fuchsias "grown on a standard" that means, as every one mentioned, that its a sturdy upright type, trained up on one stem, over years to that pretty lolly pop shape. So to make one you need a type that will be "Very Upright" this is often in the discription. The fire cracker has the most stunning folage, the bloom however is like Gardenmeister Bonstadt only smaller. I think I have seen a variety of these. There is a nursery in portland called "Al's" and they have had quite a few of them. I dont know if they will ship, but I bet if you got the right person on the phone, they would be able to tell you what your best bet for this type of shape would be. They advertize that they grow most of what they sell, and are pretty nice folks. I know it seems silly to point this out, but sometimes the only way to get to what you want is to use the right lingo. I am envious, I wish I had room to over winter one too. Good luck!

Thanks crazyforcelli for the referral to Monnier's Country Gardens http://www.monnierscountrygardens.com/I-L.html
I was able to identify my mature fuschia tree from their photo catalog as a F. aborescens "Americana."

Even better, for fauxceleb, they ship! Debbie Monnier recommended the Magellanicas alba, White Knite "Perle" and Diana Wright among others for those trying to grow an upright fuschia "Tree."

The other comments about stature are correct, my "Americana" looks every bit a tree at 12 feet tall, but it's listed in the guides as only growing to 6 feet. Debbie said that most of the upright, hardy fuschia's will grow taller than expected if you give them the right conditions.