Compact bushy fuchsias look fantastic planted in patio containers
Image: Fuchsia ‘Swingtime’ from Thompson & Morgan
Longtime fuchsia enthusiast Carol Gubler explains here how to pinch out your fuchsia plants to control flowering time, grow bushier plants, and kickstart extravagant blooming. Carol draws from a lifetime of experience with these fabulous flowers to create excellent tips and advice you can trust. Don’t miss the video demonstration below too!
How to pinch out a young fuchsia plant
Pinch out your fuchsias to produce more flower bearing stems
Image: Fuchsia ‘Genii’ (Hardy) from Thompson & Morgan
What we’re aiming for when we grow fuchsias is lots of flowers. If we just leave the plant to grow as it wants to, generally we’d get a straggly plant with fewer flowers. However, if we take control by pinching out our fuchsias, we’ll get the best flowering results!
So what is pinching out? If you want to grow a fuchsia that has a bushy growth, then you’re going to need to pinch or remove the growing tip at a fairly early stage. If you want to grow a fuchsia standard, avoid pinching out the top growth and follow a standard specific growers guide.
I let the rooted fuchsia cutting or plug plant grow to 3 pairs of leaves (about 2” tall) before removing the very tip of the plant. I remove the very smallest bit at the top, however if you want to use the bit that you take off to strike a cutting, then you may want to let the plant grow slightly taller so that you can safely take off a larger tip. Remove the tip growth with a sharp pair of scissors. Make sure that the cut is just above the next set of leaves, as a piece of stem left behind alone may rot.
How does pinching out fuchsias produce more flowers?
Control your fuchsia flower displays in summer by pinching out young plants
Image: Fuchsia ‘Hawkshead’ from Thompson & Morgan
Removing the growing tip stimulates the side shoots into growth, so that instead of having one main stem, the side shoots will take precedence. Let those side shoots grow until they have two or three pairs of leaves, then remove their growing tips. Repeat this process until you’re happy with your fuchsia form. Having pinched out several times you’ll have a nice bushy plant with lots of growth.
Remember that each time you remove a growing tip, you’re going to at least double the numbers of main shoots. Each plant will be different in its growth – for a slow growing plant or a very short jointed one, you may want to allow more time between pinches. A fast growing and rampant plant may need to be pinched out more often.
What other benefits come from pinching out my fuchsia plants?
Control when your fuchsia flowers by pinching out the growing tips
Image: Fuchsia ‘Royal Mosaic’ from Thompson & Morgan
Pinching out does several things, firstly it creates a bushy plant, secondly it gives you control of the plant’s growth and finally, and perhaps most importantly, it gives you a degree of control of when the plant will flower!
Different flower types flower at different times. As a general rule:
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- Single flowered fuchsias (those with 4 petals), like fuchsia ‘Riccartonii’, will flower after about 60 days.
- Doubles (the larger fluffy flowers), like fuchsia ‘Happy Wedding Day’, take about 80 days.
- Triphyllas (generally with the long thin orange flowers), like fuchsia ‘Eruption’, take about 100 days.
The word “about” is vital, as we can never guarantee when the plant will flower but it does give us a rough guideline!
Top advice for pinching out plant tips – video guide
Watch the video to see how you can improve the flowering capacity of your fuchsia plants.
Find all you need to know about growing beautiful blooms over on our summer flowers hub page. For more help with growing and caring for fuchsias, visit our fuchsias hub page for a wealth of practical information.
My family first got the fuchsia bug in 1963 when my late father stopped to admire the plants growing in a neighbour’s garden – they were fuchsias and he was hooked! Gradually the garden was overtaken by fuchsias – and in 1979 we moved as a family to a little village near Guildford, where to this day I grow lots of fuchsias (about 500 different types!)
I am Assistant Secretary of The British Fuchsia Society and involved in anything and everything to do with fuchsias!
Thank you Sue, I am checking them every day well twice just in case I missed any, I have always taken the red beetle off the leaves and discarded them, I did buy some spray just in case I saw them again but after the last few last week not seen anymore, so fingers crossed, thank you for your help I will know what it is if I see any again in the future.
I have had Lily bulbs from Thomson and Morgan for years, well moved house three times I have taken the bulbs with me and bought new ones when I have seen them on QVc i have got quite a few now but never enough I love the Lily’s I always check them for the Red beetle only got a few this year but yesterday went out to check them over and in one pot there are six bulbs with the flowers almost open, but there was no red beetle instead there was like a Black goo or something, the smell wasn’t very nice, I got some tissues and wiped it off the leaves as much as I could got it on my fingers and hands, this morning went to check again and saw a small grub with the black stuff it was lying in there are a few holes in the leaves but I have stripped off the leaves the stuff is on as the smell isn’t very nice, can you give me some advice what to do, should I spray them with the beetle stuff although not a beetle they were like maggot size light brown cream colour. Hel please
Hello, it sounds as though you have Lily Beetle larvae on your plants. The black goo is their excrement, so not particularly pleasant! You can remove the affected leaves if its just a few, or wipe them off and get rid of them. Its important to check your Lilies every day, especially when its warm and sunny as the bright red beetles are fairly easy to spot. Catch them and dispose of them to prevent them from breeding and producing more larvae. They begin breeding in spring so be vigilant from March to October to keep populations to a minimum.