Fuchsia Gall Mite

To say that this is not the post I would want to follow on from the last one is an understatement of monstrous proportions. I would rather not be writing it at all and have misgivings about putting into the public domain something that part of me would rather keep quiet about.

Two days ago, to my consternation, I found a shoot on one of the fuchsias in my garden that was clearly infested with gall mite. The whole plant was razed to the ground in minutes and removed to the dustbin taking great care not to touch anything on the way.

Today I went round the garden and scrutinised every fuchsia we have for further signs. I found one infected shoot on a plant perhaps 40 feet away from the first. That plant also was chopped carefully into a plastic bag and binned, the secateurs doused in boiling water.

Dead centre and far from obvious.

Sometimes gardening feels like one step forward, two steps back.

OK, I’m down but not out. I’m not giving in and resigning myself to losing all our fuchsias. I intend to fight back. It may be that total eradication proves elusive. It may be that even if it were achieved, new infestations from the same place as this one came from would break out. If I get further outbreaks, I will never know whether their source is plants in my own garden or elsewhere.

I’ve read the entries about gall mite on the websites of the RHS, the British Fuchsia Society, Defra and the American Fuchsia Society. In America, especially California, they have been living with this pest for a lot longer than we have and I think their approach has much to commend it. http://www.americanfuchsiasociety.org/articledirectory/learning-to-live-with-gallmites/#more-286

I will be carrying out careful visual inspections at least fortnightly, preferably more often. Any possible early infestations will go straight into the dustbin. I need to decide on a treatment that can then be applied to the plant that will further suppress the pest and hopefully knock down any that have already moved on from the gall.

The plants I have found infection on now, in late October, have already been cut down to the ground. I need to decide on a treatment for the stumps and surrounding ground. Some kind of winter wash, repeated a couple of times, is what I’m thinking. I won’t destroy those plants, but I will keep an especially close eye on them next year.

It may be that I keep getting outbreaks on the same varieties, in which case I will deem them particularly susceptible and get rid of them. It may equally be the case that some varieties are highly resistant to damage, even to the point of it not being visible, but still support a small population of mites. I think I may cut down all my hardies in autumn (I usually wait till spring) and spray with a winter wash. That way there should be a break of several months when the mites will have nothing much to survive on.

I have a neighbour with a garden half full of fuchsias, some coming through the boundary right where I found the first infestation. I have to grasp the nettle and try to get him to follow the same program. I'm not sure he will be very cooperative.

I'd be massively grateful for any comments on what I'm planning, especially from anybody who has been in the same position.

Unmistakable and very very unwelcome.

Fuchsias, a kind of appeal.

When my better half, Sue, moved down from Scotland nearly 30 years ago, she brought with her a fuchsia called ‘Dancing Flame’. Sadly, we no longer have it, but it is still available and the RHS website listing says there are 9 suppliers.

'Adalbert Bogner'

Sue was a big fan of fuchsias; I have to admit I was myself somewhat indifferent. We both worked on a nursery for the next 25 years and fuchsias became one of the plant groups for which it was well known. Between us, we built up a very diverse and interesting range, securing plants from a wide range of sources to do so.

'Annie Guerts'

We are both retired now and the nursery no longer grows fuchsias. Over the years that we were there Sue took plants of her favourites home with her or bought plants from other nurseries and then took cuttings from them to add to the nursery catalogue.

'Catherina'

Earlier this year I took stock of what we still had and set about taking cuttings from each of them to try to get young plants going, many of them being old and in poor condition. My list ran to 58 varieties. I just checked them all against the RHS listing and found that 22 are no longer available from UK nurseries, with a further 11 listed by only one.

'Comperen Lutea'

I don’t quite know what to think about that. Some of them are surpassingly beautiful varieties that it seems very sad to lose. On the other hand, Fuchsias are one of those vast groups where it is inevitable that old varieties will disappear in order to make room for new ones. Fuchsias are hardly ever troubled by viruses, which spell the demise of so many plant varieties and while individual plants may only thrive for a few years, if they are propagated regularly the clones can be very long lived.

'Cornish Pixie'

I feel something of a responsibility to keep going the ones we have and I wish I was in a position to disseminate them more widely but running any sort of nursery out of our small and over-full garden is impracticable. In common with many other groups of plants, fuchsias have in recent times fallen victim to a newly introduced pest, gall mite in this instance. It is possible that some of the varieties we have are resistant or immune and the more varieties that are grown, the more likely it is that a good range will survive the pest.

'Day by Day'

I have strong young plants of a good proportion of what we have and will make every effort to keep them going and to spread them around if I can. When I posted some montages of fuchsia pictures on Twitter recently there was a very positive response so there is clearly a fan base out there. I don’t think many people realise just how slender is the thread by which many of our garden plants hang on in cultivation.

'Dorothy Oosting'

According to the RHS, none of the varieties pictured are available from a UK nursery.

'Fiorelli Flowers'

'Grace Bell'

'Harti's Olivia'

'Jorma van Eijk'

'Martin's Sylvia'

'Red Sunlight'

'Roesse Tricolor'

'Shauna Lyndsay'

'Vivien Harris'

'Waldis Simon'

Fancy a Fuchsia?

I am in the habit of writing about my garden as if I was the only person with a stake in it. I want to say a bit about fuchsias and I simply cannot talk about my fuchsias in my garden, they are Sue’s fuchsias in our garden.

Fuchsias really come into their own in late summer and autumn. Even though most of our hardy varieties come through the winter with their top growth fairly unscathed, they all get chopped down to an inch or so in late winter. Up they come again, bushier than ever, to start flowering in midsummer and continue until frosted.

Fuchsia microphylla, one of the encliandra types with tiny vivid pink flowers, is outstanding every year. It is the hardiest we grow and more years than not, comes through the winter without dropping a leaf or stopping flowering. ‘Cornish Pixie’ is a variety of it that only gets a foot or so tall.

Fuchsia microphylla

‘Delta’s Sarah’ is a tall growing variety with white sepals and petals at first lilac blue, turning to pink. ‘Ian Storey’ is very upright and has flowers with red sepals and petals at first almost black, lightening to deep purple.

Fuchsia 'Delta's Sarah'

We have three varieties with bright gold foliage; ‘Genii’ is good but magellanica ‘Aurea’ is better, making a mound of gold against which the red stems and flowers are well set off. ‘Olga Storey’ is even showier, with larger flowers of red and purple. The leaves are bright yellow with a red midrib and petiole, seemingly immune to fuchsia rust.

Fuchsias magellanica 'Aurea' and 'Olga Storey'

We have one very good plant which was a volunteer seedling. While probably not distinctive enough to name, it is very free flowering and very healthy, the flowers a very bright red with lighter red petals.

Fuchsias 'Ian Storey' and an unnamed seedling

We have a lot of varieties in pots which I have been trying to propagate this year in order to get young vigorous plants going to replace the old, somewhat tired ones. Some are truly outstanding and it is difficult to pick favourites. ‘Jadi Messingtetra’ is one of the showiest, its sepals arching like pink birds wings below which is a hula skirt of blue, turning mauve.

Fuchsia 'Jadi Messingtetra'

‘Walz Blaukous’ has similar colouring but semi-double flowers. ‘Dying Embers’ has red suffused leaves, dark red sepals and almost black petals. Compact and free flowering, it is in the garden and will be left out to see if it survives the winter. Cuttings have been taken.

Fuchsias 'Walz Blaukous' and 'Dying Embers'

If your view of fuchsias is based on the basket and bedding varieties that abound in garden centres I would urge you to look again, you’re missing some very lovely and very beautiful plants.