Another plea for advice from another former Student: I am beginning to wonder if I am not training them sufficiently well! (laughs) To be fair to me, this is a winter-related question, from a summer Student, so it's not a topic we would have covered in any great detail.
Hardy Fuchsia, then: the sort that live outdoors in the garden all year round, with a woody structure and usually a gnarly woody base. I think the most famous is “Mrs Popple”:
... which is hardy, reliable, beautiful, and can get up to nearly waist height each year.
I say “each year” because they die back over the winter, and are generally cut down, right down to ground level.
Personally I'll cut them back radically in late autumn or early winter, depending on how long they stay looking nice: then in spring, when they start to grow again, I'll go over the cut-back stems and remove any which are not sprouting.
Most of the best sprouts are from the very base of the plant, but if you forget to cut them back in winter, you will find some sprouts - and when I say “sprouts” I mean “shoots”, not “brussels sprouts”, but I am sure you realised what I meant - appearing along the old stems, which leads some people to ask if it's not better to leave the old stems uncut, in order to get a bigger plant the following year....
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