Please can you ID this...

[rana]

Can anyone identify this - It is from a small shrub I saw in a local park.

[rustylady]

Looks like a fuchsia - if you like it, nick some stem tips (just past the flower in the piccie) and root them in water (I use shot glasses for rooting cuttings)

[Flummery]

I don't think it's a fuchsia - but I don't know for sure what it IS!

[OllieMartin]

I don't think it's a fuchsia - but I don't know for sure what it IS!

Who knows what the fuchsia holds?

ahem

[rana]

I thought it might be Fuchsia procumbens at first then drifted to some sort of bush Cuphea but I'm still none the wiser..........

[Flummery]

Who knows what the fuchsia holds?

ahem

Back to the fuchsia!

[lizzylemon]

Hi Rana, I think it is the Salmon Leap variation of Phygelius x rectus - or at least that's what the book says. Same flower /colour & leaf shape from what I can tell.

Scans not very good but good enough I think.

The bumph is: A genus of 2 species of attractive ever green or semi-evergreen, penstemon-like sub-shrub fromSouth Africa. P.capensis is remarkable as one of the very few south african shrubs that are to any extent hardy in the cooler temperate climates. They reach their greatest heigh against a sunny wall but look well almost anywhere in a shrub or herbaceous border. They are best in full sun and grow in any type of well-drained soil as long as it is not too dry. In colder ares is is as well to mulch the root heavly in Autumn.

So I hope I got it right cos it's just taken me ages to type that passage - banana fingers today

[Flummery]

Well that certainly does look like the bunny! Well done Lizzy.

[lizzylemon]

Thanks but it was fate - I happened to browsing and only turned 2 pages and there it was. Lovely coincidence.

(Do'h I should have just nodded in a sage like stlye as if I actually knew something for a change but....)

[rustylady]

Well done Lizzy

[rana]

Lizzy - that's the one. Thanks for the gen. Thought I'd be able to rely on Flummery who is normally always on the button........................

[Flummery]

Except with plants I haven't grown! Wish I had an even bigger garden! I used to read gardening books but now I read you lot!

[Polly Fouracre]

My Ma would have taken a "slip", handed it to me and said "Quickly, put that in your bag"
The leaf is certainly fuschia but it's one I don't recognise.

[lizzylemon]

My Ma would have taken a "slip", handed it to me and said "Quickly, put that in your bag"

My GrandMa used to do that with Rhododendrons - normally visiting Sandringham Gardens!!!!!

[rana]

Yeah

OAP's are better than secateurs for collecting illicit cuttings - they seem to have no shame and rely on that little old lady image to get away with it. My mates mum spends more time in the display beds than on the paths when we visit the Ventnor botanic gardens.