Hi, My experience was dismal. They are ok till about August It is as if the air is to "heavy" for them. Bought them in a place them in a north window and they continued their decline. I am in zone 10 a. If some one else in my zone has had any luck I would like to find out what they do.When gardening out of zone I think it is easier to keep the tropicals "warm" than to keep plants "cool". In northern Florida zone 8 .I am sure they would be fine.

I have only just seen your post. I have a similar problem. I live in a tropical area - Brazil - and would like to grow more fuschias. It's not true to say they will not grow in the tropics. My prob is the tropical varieties are not that easy to get hold of. Two that I grow very successfully are Thalia ( orange tubular flowers ) and Marinka (wine-red flowers), not the variegated form. To grow in the Caribbean you want Fuschia triphylla hybrids ( the species is quite rare but it is native to that area). A few I can suggest are Mary, Gartenmeister Bonstedt and Billy Green but if you look in any good fuschia book it will show you many more. Miss California is OK for a while but needs frequent renewing from cuttings, this is true of many. I have one or two others that are not bad but as they are "NOIDs" I can't recommend them. If you want a large plant, small tree, F.boliviana grows well in a v warm climate. Culture also helps - I grow most of my plants in close to full shade, they resent very hot sunshine. You will probably have the same problem as me in that very few plants are available locally so you may have to import them from USA for which you will need a CITES certificate. Alternatively you could smuggle a few rooted cuttings! Good luck.