Fuchsia Happy Birthday

The Fuchsia 'Happy Birthday' is distinguished by its extraordinary spring foliage. Its young shoots are a bright and vibrant cream pink. Over time, they become shiny green, offering a beautiful setting for delicate pink-red bell-shaped flowers. When exposed to cold weather, the foliage develops more or less vibrant pink marbling. A colorful and unique spectacle from spring to autumn. It is also a relatively hardy and easy to grow variety, magnificent in the garden or in flower pots.

Hybrid Fuchsias are countless, and most of them are derived from Fuchsia magellanica and Fuchsia fulgens, with sometimes the contribution of Fuchsia triphylla, which brings length to the flowers, which are then characterized by thin tubes and violet-reversed leaves. All these herbaceous to woody plants, more or less hardy and more or less erect or trailing, belong to the onagraceae family and are native to South America, the Caribbean, and Australia.

The 'Happy Birthday' Fuchsia quickly forms a generous, bushy, and upright shrub, about 1 metre (3 feet 4 inches) tall and wide. The stems, initially herbaceous, become woody over the season. They bear abundant foliage composed of narrow, deciduous leaves, opposite, whorled in groups of 3 or 5, entire, 5 to 8 cm (2 to 3.1 in) long, and lanceolate. The young foliage is a light pink. The very prominent veins are red. The foliage then becomes shiny green, more or less marbled with pink due to cold weather. Its flowering period extends from June to September-October. Its flowers are single, small in size, bright pink, composed of a long tube extended by 4 long and reflexed sepals, and a corolla of wider and shorter violet petals. Long pink stamens perfect the color harmony.

Usually grown as an annual, this Fuchsia is a perennial shrub that can be grown indoors, but also in the ground where frost is not too severe. Its hardiness varies from -5°C (23 °F) (without protection) to -10°C (14 °F) when the plant is sheltered in winter. Fuchsias pair well with hydrangeas and the foliage of ferns, rodgersias, orange heucheras, or light green hostas. In a flower pot, they can be accompanied, for example, by ivy, Silver Falls dichondra, lobelias, or trailing bacopas with very delicate flowers.

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

Sold as green plants measuring 4 to 8cm (1.6 to 3.1 in) in 5 small, 2.8cm (1.1 in) diameter x 4cm (1.6 in) high plugs. Our plants are at least eight weeks old and strong enough to be planted in the ground.