Fuchsia Celia Smedley

The Fuchsia Celia Smedley is a variety of bush fuchsia with elegant and vibrant, colorful flowers. It is of a good size for this type of plant, and they are produced abundantly from early summer to autumn, in single bells, with pretty contrasting colours of Neyron pink and currant red. This fuchsia forms a small, upright bush, with fast growth and semi-hardiness, with dark green foliage. It grows in non-scorching sunlight or partial shade, in a sheltered position from the wind, either in the ground or in a pot.

Hybrid fuchsias are numerous, and most of them come from Fuchsia magellanica and Fuchsia fulgens, sometimes with the contribution of Fuchsia triphylla, which adds length to the flowers. All these herbaceous to woody plants, more or less hardy and upright with a relaxed branching habit, belong to the Onagraceae family. They are native to South America, the Caribbean, and Australia.

The Fuchsia Celia Smedley was awarded the Gold Medal of the Plant World, the A.G.M of the R.H.S (Royal Horticultural Society) in England. This variety quickly forms a dense bush with upright and branching stems, reaching a height of 90 cm. In favorable climates, if its branches are not frozen by winter, it can even reach a height of 1.20 m (4 ft). The stems, initially herbaceous, become woody throughout the season. They bear abundant foliage, of a rather dark green color, composed of leaves grouped in 3 or 5, lanceolate, and rather narrow. These deciduous leaves fall in autumn and reappear in spring. Flowering occurs from June to September. Its flowers are medium to large in size. Each one has a calyx, a kind of long tube extended by 4 long and curled sepals, of a Neyron pink, surrounding a simple corolla composed of bright red petals, a currant red. Short cherry red stamens complete the color harmony.

This Fuchsia Celia Smedley is a perennial shrub that can be grown in the ground in regions that are not too cold.  Once established Its hardiness is around -10 to -12°C (14 to 10.4 °F), under good growing conditions, and when care is taken to protect the stump in winter. Fuchsias go well with hydrangeas and the foliage of ferns, rodgersias, orange heucheras, or hostas. In a flowering pot, they can be accompanied, for example, by ivy, lobelias, or begonias.

Discovered in Santo Domingo in the 17th century and acclimatized in Europe, it was named Fuchsia (not Fuschia) in honor of a German botanist named Fuchs. Native to South America, botanical fuchsias have gradually been multiplied. There are now estimated to be tens of thousands of hybrids!