Made with Xara Copyright 2011 www.fuchsiaflower.co.uk Contact Growing Triphylla Type Fuchsias Anyone who enjoys growing fuchsias should try growing at least one of  these cultivars. With their dark green leaves and flowers in varying  shades of orange/red they make striking summer bedding plants either  in the ground or in patio pots and will stand full sun unlike the usual  cultivars.   Triphyllas are strong growers, but they are long jointed, upright growers which makes  them fairly hard to grow as a show plant. Another drawback is the fast ripening of the  stems which leads to them losing young lower leaves.  For those of you who intend using them around the garden then these drawbacks are  negligible but to achieve a plant such as the one on the left is going to take three years, if not more. Growers will use methods to overcome these drawbacks such as taking long cuttings so that leaf nodes are buried to encourage shoots from below compost level - Pruning back very hard in Autumn to encourage more growth from the base - Cutting off large portions of the root ball in Spring and dropping the plant down into the pot. You should also bear in mind that Triphyllas will take about 13 weeks to flower from the  last stop/pinch but, because they flower in clusters on the tip of the stems, when they  do start they go on and on.   This web site is aimed at the newcomer or novice ,so growing Triphyllas  can be made a lot  easier by following the same rules as described on the Fuchsias in Containers page. Again I will put 3 young plants into a 6” or 7” pot at the end of April/beginning of March and  immediately pinch out any growing tips. They are then treated as one plant and will receive  one more stop all over as soon as it is big enough and that will be it. The one on the right is a fine example of what can be achieved in one season. From young plants in March to full flowering in the middle of August. This one is Koralle. I have to add that I lost two branches from the middle whilst transporting it to a show but it  still won me a 3rd prize card.  It’s pretty obvious that using this method will get you to the stage of a single plant in well  under half the time and will result in a much bigger specimen the following year.   Overwintering Triphyllas Whilst Triphyllas will stand hot sun (should we ever get any in the U.K.) at the other end of the scale they are very frost tender and should be  the ones to get ready for winter first, just in case a surprise frost hits. They also need extra care during the winter months. Any I have will be in  the warmest part of the greenhouse and well away from the glass. Unlike the usual fuchsias in pots, these can be cut hard back to within 2 or 3  inches of the compost. As stated before you want new growth to come from the base.   On the left is the same Koralle which was cut back at the end of September and this is the stage it  is now at on the 1st November with lots of new growth coming. This will be kept in a heated  greenhouse as described on the Over Wintering Fuchsias page. If your plants are being kept dormant and just frost free than you can expect growth like this to  start in Spring. Because of the mass of roots that Triphyllas produce, I will always pot them up in Spring, teasing  the roots away from the root ball slightly to encourage them into the new compost. For instance,  this one is in a 6” pot and will go into an 8” pot ready for next year’s show.   Triphylla Types   Billy Green - Thalia - Leverkusen - Mary - Koralle or Coralle - Thalia - Gartemeister Bonstedt - Jackqueline - Trumpeter - Mantilla - Insulinde These are just a few to keep you going for now. A full list can be found on the British Fuchsia Society’s web site