Fuchsia Feast

For this entry, I'm delighted to hand over to Denise from wildaboutdevon.co.uk, who wrote to us with some of her ideas for gardening for wildlife:

I am not a very talented gardener, but I always make the effort to grow something that will attract wildlife, and fuchsias certainly do that.

It was beneath a fuchsia bush that I saw my first Elephant Hawkmoth caterpillar. It’s a large caterpillar (some grow to over 10cm), named so because it is believed to look like an elephant’s trunk. I had been told of its fascinating behaviour: it has large eyespots towards its head and it is said to rise up and sway, to make itself look like a snake. I’m not sure if I agree with that analogy, but I was certainly captivated and somewhat amused. The adult moths, with a stunning pattern of bright pink and buff, feed on fuchsia flowers too (left).

During April of this year, some colleagues and I were discussing how our fuchsia plants seemed to be dead. I was kicking myself because I had read that they should be protected during harsh winters, and we had not long ago had a very snowy spell. So, I bought another one, ‘Mrs Popple’ I think. I planted my new fuchsia plant immediately and it grew very quickly.

The old one also came back to life in May so a large section of my garden became full of those striking pink and purple flowers. They were constantly visited by bumblebees throughout the daylight hours of summer and became even more valuable as the day length shortened and the flowers of other bushes had dropped off. The fuchsia then became a beacon for other insects needing some nectar before winters.

This is an excellent wildlife plant, especially for somebody like me who undertakes garden maintenance far too infrequently. The fuchsia is still flowering, even now.