Fuchsia question

[hawthorns]

my partner has a fuchsia called annabel she got it a yr ago and it flowered all last summer and its been in the greenhouse over winter its not a hardy type just standard its been wrapped up all winter. near the bottom up to the branches it has green shoots. the branches are very brittle and woody. should it be pruned or should we leave well alone. see pics for the plant

[bramble]

I had a few fuschia Annabel being one of them. I know others will disagree with me but i always took cuttinhs in late summer/early autumn, potted these up, and then pruned back the parent plant. Overwintered in a cold greenhouse, they did'nt seem to come to any harm.

[Two_Sheds]

I love Annabel, such big flowers. I won't be pruning my fuchsias for a month yet - I've done it too early before, and killed the plant. Any prunings can usually be rooted in water to increase your stock.

Do you mean standard as in ordinary, or standard as in a bare stem with flowers at the top?

[roitelet]

As it is a standard if you want to keep it so you will need to rub out all the shoots on the stem or you will end up with a bush. I would wait until the top shoots before pruning so that you can see where the good growth is. Don't let the top get tooooooooooooooooo big or it will be top heavy and you will have problems keeping it up right.

[nick the grief]

Give it a couple of weeks and then spray the top with warm water it will soften the bark and start the top into growth, The shoots on the stem I'd let get a bit bigger and then snap them off flush with the stem and root them (it looks good in a basket as well ) and once the top is well into growth you can prune it back to good strong buds to maintain the shape and frame work.

A tip for future years, the stem can be protected with the foam they sell for pipe lagging and then some fleece draped over the top should do the trick. I must start mine off soon to see what's alive and what's dead