GROWING STANDARDS and PILLARS / COLUMNS

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Pages updated Feb 2020.
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Once established, standards are easy to maintain. The standard of Pixie below is old and gnarled. It was moved after growing in my Mother's garden for 12 years. It was cut back severely when moved and it looked dead for 4 months. I was just deciding whether to discard it when one morning my neighbour came and excitedly exclaimed that it had several shoots.

Two months later it was superb - that was December 2004

It flowered all the rest of spring then summer autumn and winter (survived 3 frosts) and by September there were only a few flowers and it was looking very woody and untidy but still OK as you can see by this photo

Ten minutes later after a quick pruning job this is what it looked like. It is essential to prune this heavily in our climate.

By the end of November it was as lush as ever, and had survived several days of 40 degree heat with little damage. In between the only thing necessary was an occasional trim due to weather conditions, or the fact that the "head" was just too heavy. Even dead-heading seemed unnecessary. Nothing seems to stop Pixie flowering. This medium single flowering fuchsia is one of my favourites - a must for any garden.. You too can have standards if you follow a few easy steps.

There is a lot of work in the first 18 months, this is my method: 

Standards

• To grow a standard, you need a cutting or a small plant that hasn't been pinched out.
• Let the one-stemmed plant keep growing, tying it to a stake as it grows and re-potting it as soon as the roots just reach the edge of the pot.
• Leave on all the side leaves but remove all the side shoots.
• Follow the diagram 

·  Let it grow the height you want to the base of the head (between 2 and 6ft) then let it grow three more sets of leaves.

• Then pinch out the top shoot, allow the top 3 side shoots to develop, still remove any below this level. As each of the six side shoots grow, pinch them out regularly.
• Each time you pinch out a stem it will grow 2 more stems and in many cases promote the growth of side shoots, so the aim is to get at least 24 branches, preferably 48 or more. 
• The more branches the more flowers. Once the head is about 8 inches in diameter, remove the leaves from the main stem
•  If you are going to plant the standard in your garden, plant it out when it is about 8-12 inches tall.
• Tie it to a stake the size you want it to grow to, so you don't have to keep replacing the stake (a 6ft stake on a small plant looks a bit crazy but after snapping off several almost fully grown standards while trying to change stakes I have found it is easier).

· Follow the planting instructions above. 

· Check the ties regularly and replace any that have grown too tight – in the first year the trunk may grow to about 1” thick. 

· Fertilise regularly with a high nitrogen fertiliser, remove any flowers while training as they will slow the development.

Pillars/Columns

• To grow a column start as for the standard but DON’T remove the side shoots.
• Pinch out each side shoot when it grows 2-3 sets of leaves.
• DON’T pinch out the top shoot till it reaches the height required.
• Try growing one 6-8 ft high. It will look great!
• Stake and fertilise as for a standard.

Two 6ft high pillars in the sun, except for late afternoon. Flash and Red  Ace A 7' high standard of Ambassador. 2 Standards still at the whip stage, behind them one section of a Gartenmeister Bonstedt hedge that is all along the verandah.  In the middle Chang.

3 partly trained standards. Unfortunately I couldn't resist letting them flower. I always put in the stake I am going to finish with at the beginning, so I don't have the hassle of replacing stakes. When I have tried the replacement method in the past I have snapped off all or part of the plant. A friend says that the fuchsias get an inferiority complex when as a 3" plant they are given a 6' stake but as you see they still try to get to the top. What you shouldn't do: Checkerboard standard put on a spurt of growth due to hot wet weather. I couldn't bear to cut off the dozens of buds,  I now have trimmed it back so it will be more compact in a few weeks. Small standard of Papoose with tiny flowers. I really like these small  singles as they flower most profusely.

· Barbara's fuchsia home page

o Constructing a Fuchsia Garden

o Growing Fuchsias in the ground PDF print-friendly version

o Growing Bush Fuchsias

o Pruning

o Fuchsia Links page

o Propagating

o Where to buy Fuchsias in Australia

o Open Fuchsia Garden

o Fuchsia Fanciers, Australia  formerly The In Ground Fuchsia Group

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