Customer Reviews

Fuchsias: The Complete Guide

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The book is one of the few complete Fuchsia references left (at least, in English--there are a few more in German and sometimes these are sold in English-language markets for lack of other options).

The sections on how to achieve various goals are a bit long on prose and short on procedure.

The section on pests and diseases seems backwards--the section headings are the names of the diseases--the expectation seems to be that you already know the disease and then read about the life-cycle of the agent that causes it! My experience advising neophyte Fuchsia growers is that they tell me the symptoms and expect me to determine the disease and what to do about it. It really should have been a symptomatic approach. This section too is long on prose and short on procedure--there is a lengthy discussion of spider mites including speculation on why some of them turn red, but not much about what to do about them. There is a section on spider mite predators but no clear instructions on how to use them (assuming that's the point of that section).

There are other oddities in the way information is organized. There is a brief section on scented Fuchsias derived from Fuchsia paniculata--naturally these exist in the chapter on Encycliandras (sarcasm--F. paniculata is not an Encycliandra--but if I didn't know better, reading that chapter I'd think it were). The section on Encycliandras briefly discusses breeding them but only barely mentions, in a caption, what is significant and different about them. If I didn't already know what they are, the section on Encycliandras would just be confusing to me.

Possibly the most useful and best-written section is the guide to Fuchsia species near the end of the book. There are also some photographs of some of the species including several rare in cultivation. The book also does cover some sections of the genus Fuchsia, and their hybrids, that are rarely discussed in other Fuchsia references.