Now, you may or may not know, but most fuchsia varieties produce edible berries. However, very few have a decent taste and are not all that appealing when eaten fresh. Some of the berries can be quite small and are sparsely produced on the plants, so you won’t get a very big crop from them.
The new, Fuchsia ‘Berry’ changes all that; with juicy, plump, maroon berries that are a bit like a cherry without the stone. Plants are also super productive, so you can plant up a big block of them on the allotment, or anywhere in the garden and have a plentiful supply to top your daily cereal, and much more. Our plant breeders worked for many years, cross hybridising and selecting from a range of different berrying varieties – doing endless taste tests and berry counts.
Easy to grow
As easy to grow as a normal fuchsia, the Fuchsia ‘Berry’ is hardy, so you can plant up anywhere you would normally grow your hardy, bush fuchsias. Although, it would also be at home on the allotment, in the fruit garden or on the veg patch. Plant them around 1ft apart.
Tolerant of some shade, you’ll find the Fuchsia ‘Berry’ a versatile crop. The shrubby plants are bejeweled with fabulous, classic blue and red fuchsia blooms from late June, which are soon replaced by the plump, vitamin-rich berries in their hundreds. Don’t worry these plants keep on flowering while they are fruiting, so the display goes on and on.
The berries are packed full of vitamin C and other nutrients. The taste is akin to a fig or kiwi flavour. Although you can make jam with your berries, this amazing Fuchsia ‘Berry’ variety has been selected for its sweet flavour when eaten fresh from the plant. Your berry crops will start to appear towards late summer, and you’ll find the plant particularly attractive when it’s producing berries and flowers at the same time.
Add a handful to your morning cereal, eat them like healthy snacking sweets straight from the bush, or top off a summer dessert with the juicy berries. Or why not drop two or three into a chilled glass of something fizzy? And, here’s a little secret, the petals of fuchsias are edible too. Freeze them into ice cubes for a fancy addition to summer drinks.
Planting tips
Get the most from your Fuchsia ‘Berry’ plants with these useful tips:
- Your plants will be supplied as neat little plugs. Start them off indoors, and pot on until well grown.
- Unpack your plants as soon as you receive them. There’s growing advice in every package.
- When you receive them it’s best to start them off indoors in a frost-free greenhouse or similar.
- Plants are well branched, and stay relatively compact at around 3-4 feet in height, so they are ideal for containers.
- When growing in a container, I would recommend one per 14-inch diameter container.
- Pot them on into larger pots using a rich, quality multi purpose compost until the plants are established.
- I would also recommend pinching out the tips of the growing tips twice to encourage better branching, and of course to produce more flowers and more fruit.
- During the growing season, a few feeds of a high potash fertiliser, like Flower Power will increase flower and fruit production too.
- For the very best fruit production plant the Fuchsia ‘Berry’ with other types of fuchsia to ensure good cross-pollination.
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