It's hard to believe that exotic-looking Fuchsia speciosa is a tough, hardy and drought-tolerant little shrub that blooms for months.

I'm talking about those easy-care little shrubs that are self-grooming and drought-tolerant, even at the tail end of a hot, droughty summer. (It's 88 degrees as I write, with rainfall a distant memory.) Hardy fuchsias are stalwarts that bloom from midsummer through first frost, with foliage as fresh as the first day it came on.

Spurred on by such tenacity, nurseries have been carrying a number of exciting new species and cultivars. Local interest has been stirred by hardy-fuchsia display gardens at the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, the Bellevue Botanical Garden and Point Defiance Park in Tacoma, where visitors are beguiled by variegated or yellow-toned foliage, and flowers from the pale and diminutive to the puffed up and extravagant.

Cultivation of these versatile little shrubs couldn't be simpler. Most of the hardies come to us from New Zealand or South America and appreciate our marine air. They take full sun or partial shade and need watering until well-established. Plant them where you can enjoy the hummingbirds that flock to sip nectar from tubular flowers surely formed especially to suit their narrow little beaks. After the first hard frost, these fuchsias drop their leaves, revealing an unsightly bundle of sticks, which is tempting to cut down to the ground. Don't, as the above-ground parts of the plant help protect it from winter cold. Add a layer of mulch and leave alone until late winter or earliest spring, when you can cut the sticks back to be rapidly replaced by fresh new growth.
 

Now In Bloom Cortaderia richardii is a pampas grass with finer blades and earlier bloom than the large, old species that tend to be invasive. An evergreen perennial with a rounded mound of broad, arching leaves, the creamy plumes rise above the foliage early in summer, lasting 'til autumn. Being a New Zealand plant, it needs little or no supplemental water once established. In masses, C. richardii evokes the prairies, while a single specimen adds height, texture and movement to a border.

Since these shrubs are at their best midsummer into autumn, it's a good idea to surround them with daffodils or tulips so their spot in the garden plays more than one seasonal role. The bulbs will disguise the fuchsia's early spring bareness, while the fuchsia returns the favor later when the bulb's foliage withers away.

If you're wondering what is a hardy fuchsia and what isn't, and would prefer to find out in a more efficient way than killing off a few, take a look at the Northwest Fuchsia Society's Web page at www.nwfuchsiasociety.com. There you'll find a lengthy list of species, hybrids and cultivars that have been tested for hardiness for three years in the Pacific Northwest, as well as information on sales and shows. Meanwhile, here's a short list of interesting choices:

Fuchsia speciosa is one of those rare fuchsias grown more for foliage than flower. Its leaves are so large and soft that the plant looks more like a downy fluff of exotica than a fuchsia, despite its narrow, pretty drips of rosy pink flowers.

F. 'Genii' has yellow-gold leaves, red stems and fat, red and purple flowers. This plant is so frilly I'm always surprised to see it spiking right up out of the ground year-round, for it looks as if it should be pouring out the top of a fancy parfait dish, or at least a wrought-iron windowbox.

The leaves of F. magellanica var. molinae 'Enstone' are a pleasing mix of butter yellow and warm green, and F. 'White Pixie' has red and white flowers set off by yellow-glinted foliage.

Fuchsia 'Nikola Jane,' with ruffled pink and white flowers, and F. 'Double Otto,' whose plump red and purple bells top 2-foot-tall stems, would satisfy any fuchsia lover's desire for blowsy blossoms. If you prefer a little more subtlety, take a look at the pure white flowering F. magellanica 'Hawkshead' or the exquisitely tiny bead-like red flowers of F. 'Isis.' For plenty of color photos, as well as ideas on how to integrate fuchsias into beds and borders, check out "Fuchsias: The Complete Guide" by Edwin Goulding (Timber Press, new edition 2002, $34.95).

Valerie Easton is a Seattle free-lance writer and contributing editor for Horticulture magazine. Her e-mail address is valeaston@comcast.net.

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