We have thousands of, to borrow a nearby and precisely accurate phrase, “super cool plants” in our nursery collection but only a fraction of the land needed to plant them in our display beds. Necessarily, the vetting process is intense when it comes to choosing a plant for a coveted in-ground space. The candidate filling a spot that we walk closely by many times a day has to be more than just good—it has to be spectacular. (Yes, we are paraphrasing Paul Hollywood of The Great British Bake Off, but hopefully the rest of this write-up will all be original thought, or at least hard to prove otherwise).
Bred and introduced by Deb and Ron Monnier of the now-closed Monnier’s Country Gardens in Oregon, ‘DebRon’s Black Cherry’ fuchsia welcomes the end of the season with a powerfully confident “Don’t worry—I got this.” In mid-October this past year, we wandered out to our garden beds in the shadow of Washington’s Olympic range and this stunning perennial was 4 feet tall and a generous 5 feet wide. Maybe that doesn’t seem noteworthy, but understand that this girth was gained after being frozen to the ground by three nights of 11ºF temperatures in January that same year.
During the height of summer’s frenetic smash of colors, the flowers of ‘DebRon’s Black Cherry’ eschew vibrancy for strength. Plants quickly grow into a robust mound of bright green foliage, and as the solstice passes, scores of blooms appear, seemingly swollen with bridled dark emotions. Maroon tubes and sepals embrace a corolla that is black velvet in color. Although not as flashy as some other fuchsias, ‘DebRon’s Black Cherry’ is undoubtably stunning, making it worthy of its lofty place in our garden’s hierarchy. It gives us undiminished pleasure every single day when in bloom.
By mid-fall, the bright, sharp colors of many fuchsia cultivars, which were such a hit in August, seem out of touch with the surrounding autumnal tones. They exude a quiet desperation, knowing they are perpetuating a crime of fashion. Not so with ‘DebRon’s Black Cherry’, which is still fully clad in flowering branches from floor to ceiling. The tiny lampshades of color fit the season of the harvest: bruised-cerise sepals mimicking the hue of the last heirloom tomato, and the plum corollas giving a nod to the final purple eggplants in the veggie patch.
Some divas require maintenance to look their best, but this fuchsia is an exception, demanding only an annual five-minute tryst with a hand pruner. In spring, we wait for the new growth to appear and then cut the bare winter-killed stems back to just above the soft new shoots, and we water it as needed. This no-fuss, no-muss beauty does not even move the needle on the Onerous Scale while giving back so much more than you put in. Add it to your spring shopping list—you won’t regret it.
Kelly Dodson and Sue Milliken grow some of the coolest plants on the planet at Far Reaches Farm Nursery and Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy in Port Townsend, Washington.
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