Description:

A compact, self supporting bush variety featuring dainty, royal purple nodding flowers with bright scarlet sepals, contrasting the attractive sea-green foliage; a colorful display that continues all summer long; very attractive to hummingbirds

Ornamental Features

Army Nurse Fuchsia features dainty nodding deep purple trumpet-shaped flowers with scarlet overtones and white anthers along the branches from late spring to mid fall. It has bluish-green foliage with red veins. The pointy leaves remain bluish-green throughout the winter. The dark red stems can be quite attractive.

Landscape Attributes

Army Nurse Fuchsia is a dense multi-stemmed evergreen shrub with a more or less rounded form. Its average texture blends into the landscape, but can be balanced by one or two finer or coarser trees or shrubs for an effective composition.

This is a relatively low maintenance shrub, and should only be pruned after flowering to avoid removing any of the current season's flowers. It is a good choice for attracting hummingbirds to your yard. Gardeners should be aware of the following characteristic(s) that may warrant special consideration;

• Insects

Army Nurse Fuchsia is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Accent
• General Garden Use
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Army Nurse Fuchsia will grow to be about 24 inches tall at maturity, with a spread of 24 inches. It has a low canopy. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 20 years.

This shrub does best in full sun to partial shade. You may want to keep it away from hot, dry locations that receive direct afternoon sun or which get reflected sunlight, such as against the south side of a white wall. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. It is not particular as to soil pH, but grows best in rich soils. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. This particular variety is an interspecific hybrid.

Army Nurse Fuchsia makes a fine choice for the outdoor landscape, but it is also well-suited for use in outdoor pots and containers. It can be used either as 'filler' or as a 'thriller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination, depending on the height and form of the other plants used in the container planting. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when grown in a container, it may not perform exactly as indicated on the tag - this is to be expected. Also note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.