Western Cape Fuchsia Society

Meetings

The Western Cape Fuchsia Society meets at 2pm on the first Saturday of each month between February and November at the St Thomas Church Hall, Campground Road in Rondebosch. Every month there is a practical workshop during which an experienced grower demonstrates a particular aspect of cultivating fuchsias relevant to that time of the year. Afterwards members have some practical experience, for example, in June and July they can bring any of their own plants that need potting-up and they will be guided through this process on these plant/s.

 The Society also invites a guest speaker to some meetings to talk about an interesting aspect of gardening, not necessarily connected to growing fuchsias.

Visitors are always welcome to participate and at the end of the meeting, they have the opportunity to discuss any aspect of fuchsia growing with the members over tea and cake.

Should you wish to join the Society, please contact the secretary (details provided below) for all relevant information.

A membership form may be downloaded here.

WESTERN CAPE FUCHSIA SOCIETY 2026 PROGRAMME 

NOT YET AVAILABLE

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Meeting minutes

Date: 1st August 2026

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There were 22 members present.

Apologies were received from Emma, Ninon, Shirley, and Lorraine.

Belinda welcomed all the members present.  

The first item on the program was a Zoom talk by Andrew Cathcart who lives in Linlithgow in Scotland.  His talk was titled A Fuchsia Odyssey, and he told us about his long love affair with fuchsias.   It started back in 1975 when he bought 6 fuchsias for a pound, but by the end of summer 5 of the plants had died.  So in 1976 he purchased more fuchsia plants, 36 plants of different varieties.   Thereafter he has had great success growing and showing fuchsias.  He attended and often entered many amazing Fuchsia Shows and Garden Festivals, both in the UK as well as the Netherlands.  The members were privileged to see slides of amazing plants and beautiful blooms from the many shows that he has attended over the years. A very interesting and informative talk.

During the tea break we were treated to delicious cakes and biscuits.

After tea, Merle demonstrated how we must be pinching out the growing tips of our plants.  The object of this is to create many more stems and branches, and later to create more flowers, as well as give the growing plants a better shape.

A pinching schedule updated by Kotie, was distributed to our members.

Belinda showed the sturdy metal stands that Gideon has made.  The Society will purchase some for the Show and they are also available for members to buy to use in their gardens.

The raffle yielded the amount of R820.  Well done!  Thanks to everyone who brought donations and who purchased raffle tickets.  

A huge thank you to the Tea Team, David, Joanne and Kotie.

At the end of the meeting Betty distributed the plants that were ordered from Kraaibosch.  The order could not be filled completely this year which was a big problem for Betty.   But we wish to thank Betty for her efforts in sorting it all out.   Well done Betty!