FLIMBY: Hummingbirds love California fuchsia

This is another installment in our Flowers in My Back Yard series, devoted to blooming plants.

If you think fuchsias are fussy, you haven’t met these native Californians.

California fuchsia (Epilobium canum) is as tough as any perennial comes. Native to our coastal chaparral as well as Sierra foothills, California fuchsia bursts into colorful bloom in fall, providing food for hungry hummingbirds. (They can’t miss its bright orange-red blooms.)

Due to that attraction, California fuchsias are also known as Hummingbird Flower and Hummingbird Trumpet.

“There’s probably no better California native plant for attracting hummingbirds,” say the experts at Calscape, the California Native Plant Society’s plant website.

Several local native plant gardens (such as the UC Davis Arboretum) feature California fuchsia for its fabulous fall displays.

Like many plants, California fuchsias aren’t actually related to their namesake; the tubular flowers resemble true fuchsias, which are native to South and Central America. True fuchsias are understory plants that need lots of water and dappled shade.

Our California fuchsias are just the opposite; they thrive in sun and poor, dry soil. When they get “normal” garden irrigation (twice or three times a week), they can become garden thugs, taking over space from their neighbors. The best way to control their growth is limiting water to once or twice monthly (or less).

Hybrid varieties are better behaved. The top recommendation from many natives experts: ‘Everett’s Choice.’ It stays compact – only a foot tall and 3 feet across – making it an attractive ground-cover alternative. Other varieties grow more upright, reaching 3 or 4 feet tall. Most varieties also do well in pots.

California fuchsias grow from underground rhizomes, which help them withstand drought. Those rhizomes also help them spread. To contain plants, surround California fuchsias with an underground barrier (such as a strip of metal or buried bricks). Several varieties will freely self-seed; hybrid varieties less so if at all.

Besides the spectacular fall bloom, most California fuchsias have attractive gray-green foliage. That greenery naturally dies back in winter. To refresh this easy-care plant (and the only real maintenance): Trim it back to the ground in January. Fresh growth will emerge after March or April rain. Be patient; that plant won’t sprout until it has enough moisture.

California fuchsia is in no hurry in spring; fall is its time to shine.

Tips for California fuchsia

Here’s more advice from Calscape: “California Fuchsia is easy to grow. It does best and will flower most profusely in full sun. In the wetter, northern part of its range or near the coast, this plant will typically require no supplemental water after established. In the drier, hotter, inland southern areas, it will often die without summer water unless planted close to an irrigated or other wet area. You can water it once a month without much danger.

“Plants tend to get straggly after flowering by late fall or early winter. Best to cut it back to the ground as soon as the flowers are spent, and it will come back back lush and healthy in the spring. Otherwise, it will look straggly and unhealthy the next year and is more likely to die.

“This plant will readily self-seed, so once you get this species established, it will usually start springing up around your garden. It also spreads by rhizomes.”