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 2025 PROGRAMME 

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Meeting minutes

Date: 7th June 2025

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Present: 20 members and 1 guest

Apologies: Mary Gibbs. Jill Lawson, Jenny Scarr, Greta Graham and Barbara Symonds

Barbara welcomed all and said that it was nice to see everybody again

Felicity gave us a wonderful talk and demonstration on pruning our fuchsias

Pruning is necessary if you want a nice shape and to encourage new shoots. – the more shoots the more flowers. Delaying pruning means you will not have a Show ready plant, and the plant will become straggly

Other reasons for pruning, apart from restoring vigour to the plant, is to remove diseased , old and weakened growth, as well a giving the plant a rest

Do not cut into old wood and cut 2 nodes above last year’s growth, leaving a bit of the internode in case of die-back. When studying the plant from all sides, remove crossed branches

Whilst pruning, rub the old bark of branches when the plant has been growing for some years

Remove all the leaves and clean up the top of the soil. There are 2 schools of thought about root pruning, some believe to root prune at the same time, if necessary, others feel it best to do it later

One year old or younger plants should be lightly trimmed if necessary and the leaves be kept on the plant

Keep the soil of pruned plants moist so that is does not get stressed

A thin layer at the top of the plant can be removed and replaced with fresh soil, but be careful of hurting the top roots

Get to know your cultivars when pruning. Knowing the growth habit is always best

A big thank you to Felicity for doing the for the member’s plants

After a delicious tea and cakes provided by Myra, Lorraine and Gideon, it was raffletime and the raffle made R470!

Tea duty for the July meeting will be Noeline, Annette and Estelle