The Victor Lemoine Fuchsias

2011 poster from an exhibition to celebrate the life of renowned French nurseryman and plant hybridist, Pierre Louis Victor Lemoine (1823-1911) in Nancy, France.

 1849 was a good year for Victor Lemoine. He was 26 years old and he had persuaded his father to lend him the money to set up a nursery on the Rue de l'Hospice in Nancy. On his bookshelf he probably had a copy of Felix Porcher's Le Fuchsia: son Histoire et sa Culture, La description ou l'Indication de 520 Especes et Varietes', the second edition of which had appeared that year, and, from his Belgian friend and mentor Louis Van Houtte he had no doubt received a copy of the horticultural magazine La Flore des Serres et Jardins de l'Europe which contained the van Houtte illustration below of Fuchsia venusta, a Colombian species first collected and described by those intrepid plant hunters Humboldt and Bonpland.

 During the course of his working life he went on to release some 400 garden Fuchsia hybrids including two derived from this species 'Gerbe de Corail' and 'Corne d'abondance' in 1905 , a first for horticulture. Many of the varieties are still around today and over the course of a century have found their way to Australia. The Lemoine bred 'Lord Byron' is readily available from specialist growers.

Fuchsia x 'Lord Byron'

While regarded as a taciturn man and a poor keeper of records, the names he chose for his Fuchsias speak volumes about his tastes, interests and which people commanded his attention in the world of politics, the arts and sciences. 

Going through his catalogue has given me an insightful french history lesson. To mention but a few, there is Pierre Beaumarchais (1732-1799) who was a playwright, fugitive, spy, horticulturist, arms dealer and revolutionary; the radical left wing politician Pierre Joigneaux (1815-1892) who managed to write a few gardening books while imprisoned: L'art de produire de bonnes graines...... 'The art of producing good seed' amongst them; and President Felix Faure (1841-1899) who is now remembered for dieing whilst engaged in la pompe funebre with his thirty year old mistress. (another untranslatable French pun)
Lemoine was obviously a big opera fan as Charles Garnier (1825-1898), the architect of the Paris Opera, Palais Garnier, and stars Lucienne Breval (1869-1935) who is remembered for her performance of Rameau's 'Hippolyte et Aricie' as well as the soprano Emma Calve (1858-1942) all have fuchsias named after them.
A year or so after his death, and with his family continuing the nursery business (It operated till 1960), a fuchsia is named in honour of Mrs Jacques Feuillet (nee Marie Hout) (1864-1912) a causality of War who died while working as a Red Cross volunteer. It is a sad reminder of our own involvement in The Great War which began just two years later.

 French writer Marcel Proust, who had a keen interest in gardening and plants was probably familiar with Lemoine's Nursery when writing his A la recherche...Remembrance of Things Past, and, a keen eyed plant detective ,with way too much time on their hands, could probably identify the lusty and impious variety growing in the window-box of Mme Loiseau's house which stood cheek by jowl to the Combray village church 'Saint-Hilaire': 'In vain might Mme Louiseau deck her window-sills with fuchsias, which developed the bad habit of letting their branches trail at all times and in all directions, head downwards, and whose flowers had no more important business, when they were big enough to taste the joys of life, than to go and cool their purple, congested cheeks against the dark front of the church, to me such conduct sanctified the fuchsias not at all; between the flowers and the blackened stone against which they leaned, if my eyes could discern no gap, my mind preserved the impression of an abyss'......

The Carl Bonstedt Fuchsias

 Fuchsia triphylla from Curtis' Botanical Magazine

Joseph Hooker (1817-1911)

The German botanist and gardener, Carl Bonstedt (1866 -1953) was a man in the right place at the right time. In the early 1880's he managed to secure a plant of Fuchsia triphylla while working at Kew Gardens. The plant had been given to Kew by Henderson's Nursery of the Edgware Road and they had originally obtained it from New York nurseryman Thomas Hogg Jr. who had connections in Haiti and the Dominican Republic where this species is found growing in cool mountainous terrain. So on return to Germany, Bonstedt, who worked briefly at the Botanic Garden in Rostock from 1892 to 1900 and then at the University Botanic Garden in Gottingen, developed and produced some fine hybrid Fuchsias based on the F triphylla species. 

While often used as summer bedding plants in Europe, they thrive in a mild winter climate like ours and will flower their heads off all through winter and spring.They have the added bonus of attractive olive green, purple backed leaves and as their flowers are terminal racemes on reddish stems they are always visible and not shy at being showy. 
The main varieties available and their original release dates are: 'Mary' 1905 ,a rich scarlet colour; 'Gottingen', 1905 vermilion; 'Traudschen Bonstedt' 1905 pale salmon pink; 'Thalia', 1905 pale orange; 'Koralle' 1906 rich salmon orange; 'Gartenmeister Bonstedt' 1906 glowing orange to brick red. A terrific book which has these photographed as individual flowers to show the difference is the Plants for Warm Gardens book by Roger Phillips and Martin Rix (Pan Books)

Carl Bonstedt retired in 1931 and left us with these wonderful hardy fuchsias which are still popular and easy to grow today.

Fuchsia x 'Gartenmeister Bonstedt'

 

The Fuchsia Basket

 Fuchsia hanging basket in mid summer glory

I am thinking about fuchsias at the moment because now is the time to prune them and re-pot ones in baskets and containers. Though fuchsias don't do well in sub tropical or tropical climates they are fine on the coast and in the city as long as they are protected from hot drying winds in summer. Avoid buying them at this time of year if they are loaded with flowers as they have probably been 'forced' in a glasshouse and may go into shock once placed in a decorative pot or garden bed and drop most of the flowers and leaves.

Basket grown fuchsias make great gifts and are fairly easy to DIY with a little effort. Always buy named varieties as it is much easier to check on whether it is a trailer suitable for baskets or one which prefers a garden site. Searching the web with a proper variety name makes it easier to source the correct information as to how big it is likely to grow.

 I re-pot existing ones by trimming down to a framework of branches and shaking off most of the soil round the roots and trimming them as well. I like the self watering hanging baskets rather than the coir ones which tend to dry out too quickly. The same rules apply for container grown fuchsias, while garden grown ones just need a tidy up and reduction in overall size. When the new leaves start to appear and the branches elongate, it is time to start tip pruning and pinching off the growing points to ensure the resulting plant will be compact and producing the maximum quantity of flowers. Liquid fertilizer helps to improve the quality and quantity of the blooms.

 My potted or basket fuchsias don't stay perfect all year long. By the end of summer they can look a bit tired and often have burnt leaves or even a bit of insect damage. I put them out of sight in a cool damp place and leave them till now to start the revival for their best months.

 Fuchsia ready for re-potting

Re-potted and waiting for warm days ahead

A Fuchsia Survey

 A Fuchsia Survey by W P Wood

Cover Illustration by Elizabeth Sorrell

Published by Williams Norgate 1950

You have to feel sorry for Mr Wood. He wrote this book as a history of Fuchsia growing, covering the time of discovery of the various species in South America and other parts of the world, to the development of the breeding programmes in the 19th Century and release of hundreds of new cultivars over the years from 1830 to the time of his writing. The War years dealt a blow to his passion for them and even by 1948 he was mourning their non appearance at the Covent Garden Market in London, as the production of fruit and vegetables instead of flowers was still at a premium. I think he wistfully longed to pack up and move to San Francisco, such is his praise for that city and its ideal Fuchsia growing climate, as Californian botanist Professor Phillip Munz (1892-1974) had published his great monograph, A Revision of the Genus Fuchsia in 1943 and America was the new centre for their research and development. 
Though there is no mention of Fuchsia growing in Australia in this book, they have always been a part of the garden scene here since the time of first settlement.
British grower Thomas Thorne, he, a descendant of the famous Lye family of Fuchsia hybridists,  gave a rundown of all the Australian bred varieties in his book Fuchsias for all Purposes in 1964. Against all the Australian entries however there are the words 'date and origin unknown'. Were we suffering from some sort of horticultural cringe? most likely. Some are still available today such as 'Canary Bird' and 'Crimson Bedder' but it would be nice to know who introduced them to horticulture. At the time there was no Australian Fuchsia Society, as that did not come till 1970 after a "call to arms" by A G Puttock (he was an ex Army officer after all) in his book on The Australian House and Garden Book of Fuchsias. Many garden books tell us much about social history and his suggestion of enclosing a verandah to make a sun room for growing Fuchsias was very much the way some older hoses were modernized at the time. Deborah Law's more recent book Growing Fuchsias published by Kangaroo Press (editions 1987 and 1990) is one of the best reference books we have on the local scene.

It is sad to report that the Australian Fuchsia Society, which had been based in Adelaide has been disbanded and the Fuchsia Club of New South Wales is in limbo. Where to now for the promotion of these hardy and delightful plants?

Carnations for amateurs

 Dutch express: 2013 Sunflor carnations from Hilverda-Kooij plant technology
These little fragrant carnations come with a label in five languages and have been shipped to Australia from The Netherlands, such is the way of the world now when marketing fresh produce. I leave the commercial growing of carnations to the big guys and grow a few just as a hobby. Now is the time of year to take cuttings of favourite ones and also to plant seed for summer flowering. Theory behind this mid winter process is that the seeds like a bit of freezing to act as a germination cue and the cuttings are less likely to die from collar rot and have more of a chance of establishing roots in a propagation medium.
Cuttings can be taken from the middle of the previous seasons flowering stem or from semi mature wood as per below. 

 I have an interesting book on carnation growing which dates from 1947, called Carnations for Amateurs by J L Gibson. The previous owner of the book earnestly wrote his name and address inside the front cover and that in itself tells a story. He lived in Richmond Street, Corinda in Brisbane. This street is on the Brisbane river flood plain and I wonder whether he had a market garden on that fertile strip of land tempered by a river breeze in summer from the worst of the humidity. Gibsons book is fairly comprehensive and has not really dated though his use of english is florid by today's standard. I love his humble words in the introduction 'Where I have floundered into pitfalls I have not hesitated to leave the red signal hoisted ,so that beginners need not blindly fall into like confusion.' He does go a bit strange when using the words 'sinister appellation' when referring to the French 'Malmaison' variety of carnation. Perhaps it refers more to the fate of Empress Josephine than anything else.
I would like to get my hands on some Malmaison carnations. These are the big fat 14cm across variety originally selected in 1857 and going strong well into the 20th century. In Britain they were assumed lost to horticulture but some were found in the 1990's in a Scottish glasshouse and these have since been cloned. They represent the 'Belle Epoque' for carnation fanciers, from the time when were at their most popular. 
Australian gardening books from last century mention the Malmaison but always with dire warnings about collar rot and other pests and diseases.
Perhaps their waning in popularity from the late 1950's onwards was about fashion. A few years after Marty Robbins had his 1957 hit A White Sport Coat (and a pink carnation), the fashion was probably turning away from adorning a buttonhole with a carnation for a dance at 'Cloudland' in Brisbane by a younger generation not wishing to emulate their parents and adopting a more Marlon Brando cool.
 I have included the Keith Urban Marty Robbins tribute below.
Carnations are still available in a good range of colours from mail order nurseries who advertise rooted cuttings. They do like a dry climate, are not fussy about fertilizers and like a bit of lime added to the soil. They are very successful when grown in pots but best treated as an annual in warm climates.

 Carnation sophistication: from 1933 exhibition 'Plant Form in Ornament'

Iznik carnation bowl displayed on Italian velvet

Department of Islamic Art, 'The Met' ,New York

Viola labradorica 'Purpurea'

 Viola labradorica 'Purpurea' syn Viola riviniana 'Purpurea Group'

Much confusion over this little violet as to what should be its correct name. Experts say it can't possibly be called species labradorica as that one is native to Greenland and probably barely makes a show except for a couple of months per year. The purple leaved form is popular as a groundcover as it is very hardy and freely spreading, perhaps a little bit too much so as it can become invasive in a garden given half the chance.The seed cases explode when ripe spreading seed far and wide.

The colour of the flower is more magenta than purple but is very pleasing and bright. It is scentless unfortunately.

The dark leaves are compact and neat

Viola canina, Violets

The dog violet, Viola canina, is so named because it has no scent and has distinctive upper petals shaped like canine teeth or should that be ears.? So these violets I found the other day have the teeth and very little scent. Is it a hybrid?

Viola canina and Viola riviniana

Carl Axel Magnus Lindman (1856-1926)