Fuchsia - 'Jack Shahan'

'Jack Shahan' is a trailing fuchsia variety which provides colour over several months in the summer with its profusion of large flowers. The tube is rose pink, as also are the sepals which rise to the horizontal and flare gracefully upwards at the tips. The single compact corolla is also pink, somewhat deeper than the sepals.

Left to itself Jack Shahan will often grow into long single branches with little branching. It needs careful pinching of the growing stems to encourage the development of a better shape, but given this attention is an excellent choice for a basket display.

This is not a very hardy variety and needs careful protection over the winter months, but over the 2007/08 winter I put large terracotta pots containing Jack Shahan in my insulated but unheated cold frame and as I write this in mid-February they're looking fine, and ready to burst out into full life for a new season. [Update in May: they're both doing well and I'm looking forward to a good display this year].