Fuchsia Dark Eyes ( LIVE STARTER PLANT) shade-loving

Fuchsia Dark Eyes is a shade-loving live starter plant that blooms beautiful, small red and white flowers. The plant is known for being resilient and easy to take care of, making it a great addition to any garden. It is a great choice for novice gardeners seeking a low-maintenance plant for their outdoor space.

Beds, borders, containers or hanging baskets. Houseplant only if high humidity requirements can be met.

Hybrid fuchsias are frost-tender, shade-loving shrubby plants that are most commonly sold in the St. Louis area as container plants (either shrub or trained as standard) or in a hanging basket. They produces drooping, tubular flowers with prominent stamens from spring to frost. Flowering may decline and foliage may wilt in the heat of the summer. Literally thousands of hybrid cultivars are available in commerce. They come with single or double flowers and with a great variety of flower colors, mostly bicolors featuring combinations of red, violet, purple, pink and white. Oval, dentate, medium green leaves (2-5” long). Plant habit varies from that of 1-2’ tall shrub to standards to weeping types with trailing stems. Upright varieties are best for containers. Weeping types are best for hanging baskets. Hummingbirds are attracted to the flowers.

Winter hardy to USDA Zones 10-11 where they are grown in organically rich, medium moisture, moisture-retentive soils in part shade to full shade. GROWN as annuals in containers/ baskets or by placing plants out in the ground after last frost date. Plants may be allowed to die in fall or they may be overwintered indoors.

Most  homes are unable to provide the high level of humidity needed to successfully overwinter these plants as houseplants. Therefore, it may be best bring containers indoors before last frost and force the plants into dormancy by cutting them back to several inches and placing them in dark corner of a cool (40s) basement until spring. Minimal moisture should be applied in winter (just enough to keep soils from totally drying out). Another option is to bring plants indoors to a bright cool spot and reduce winter watering to a bare minimum. Bedding plants can be potted up and similarly overwintered.