History of fuchsias

An exceptional position was assigned to fuchsias already by Charles Plumier, when he named a newly discovered ornamental shrub in the forests of South America in 1703 in honor of the "father of botany" Leonard Fuchs.
The later fame of Czech varieties of fuchsia, growing and breeding traditions and connections with the founder of genetics, Řehoř Mendel, inspire a deeper understanding of the history of this flower.

How did it all begin? 

In the beginning there was the Franciscan monk and botanist Charles Plumier, who studied mathematics and later botany in Rome. After returning to France, he prepared for botanical expeditions. At the expense of Louis XIV. made four research trips to South America. On his third trip in 1695, he visited Brazil, the islands of Gandeloupe, Martinique and San Domingo. In 1703 in Paris, he described the newly discovered ornamental shrub in his book "Nova Plantarum Americanum Genere" as a three-leaved plant with a red flower and named it Fuchsia triphylla flora coccinea.
Plumier named this discovered, as yet unknown, plant in honor of the Tubin professor of medicine Leonard Fuchs, who entered history as the "father of botany" with his work "De historia stirpium" from 1542.

The location of Plumier's original discovery of the new plant genus was unclear for 170 years. It was not until 1873 that Thomas Hoog specified the original distribution of Fuchsia triphylla in San Domingo and Haiti. In the meantime, however, Captain Firth brought another type of fuchsia to Europe and presented it under the name Fuchsia coccinea in the Botanical Gardens at Kew. In the course of the 18th century, other newly discovered species from Central and South America, Australia and New Zealand reached European botanical gardens. Today we know more than 100 native species of the genus Fuchsia.

At the beginning of the cultural history of fuchsias is the English gardener James Lee, who in 1793 began growing fuchsias in his garden in Hammersth. Lee obtained seeds of foreign plants thanks to his friendship with Joseph Banks, a botanist and founder of the Royal Botanic Garden in Kew, London, a participant in the first voyage around the world led by Captain Cook. To fuchsia enthusiasts, however, Lee is known as the man who in 1793 convinced a flower lover in Wapping to grow fuchsias outside her windows. A sensation over a blooming unknown flower begins the victorious campaign of fuchsias./History: "Window from Wapping" - Lincoln Herald, 4.11.1831/.

In 1842, the "Venus Victrix" variety, which was obtained by crossing original species by the gardener of a country priest in Horsmonden, England, aroused real enthusiasm. The sensation over the new fuchsia with a white calyx and a purple-blue crown led many other English gardeners to take an interest in this flower. As early as 1848, the gardener Story introduced the first variety with a white full-flowered crown to the market. The introduction of ever new and prettier hybrids in various color combinations gave us an idea of the number of colors and forms this elegant "foreigner" can still provide.

A wave of fuchsia enthusiasm was soon felt in Germany
even in our countries. "It is certainly unnecessary to speak highly of fuchsias, because they recommend themselves at first glance" stated in 1848 the Stuttgart horticultural magazine "Deutchen Magazin für Garten und Blumenkunde", which had a great influence on Czech professional circles as well. This magazine also extensively promoted varieties of the Brno gardener Jan Tvrdy. In the Czech lands, fuchsias spread very quickly, especially through castle gardens. Count Thun's offer catalog in Děčín already offered 15 species and 54 varieties of fuchsias in 1855.

Fuchsia comes to Moravia in a period of peak interest in agricultural breeding. Count Leopold Berchtold, who at the end of the 18th century was one of the most important foreign members of London's scientific circles, gave the impetus here with his information and extensive practical measures on the Buchlov estate. After 1850, organized efforts to breed horticultural cultures were concentrated in Brno in the circle of friends of Řehor Mendel. Among Mendel's friends and collaborators was Jan Nepomuk Tvrdý, whose fuchsia varieties were known throughout Europe
and they can still compete with new products even today. His variety "Perle" (8) is still the most widespread variety. The most important Czech variety, the French company Rozain-Boucharlat and the German Heineman were responsible for its expansion, is "Márinka" (3), bred in 1890 by the aristocratic doctor Štika in Herálec near Humpolka. Márinka is still an unsurpassed original variety in the assortments of growers all over the world.

At the beginning of our century, the head of the botanical garden in Götingen, Carl Bonstedt, contributed to the assortment of fuchsias with completely original grape-flowered varieties, based on the original species discovered by Plumier.(31, 62, 224, 229, 234)

The rapturous enthusiasm for fuchsia, which lasted almost a whole century, was extinguished by the First World War. But the spark that was interested in rekindling the fuchsia was already smoldering. This time in oceanic California, whose climate allows year-round outdoor cultivation. In 1929, the fuchsia lovers gathered at the AFS collected the preserved European assortment, and already in 1937 the first American variety "Cascade" appeared in the world.(27)