A MYSTERY FUCHSIA 

Solved! almost certainly Regia Regia 

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On a holiday to Bateman's Bay on the south coast of NSW I visited Mogo.

 

In the nursery there, there was a large fuchsia growing like a tree, its trunk was 2 or 3 what were obviously originally vine like branches twisted together. It was obviously old and very gnarled. It was in full bloom in March 2006.

The nursery owner said her grandfather had been a fuchsia enthusiast but she didn't know anything about the magnificent plant. She said she usually took cuttings and sold the plants but didn't have small ones (just a huge one in a concrete pot) at the time. She agreed to dig up a sucker for me and sell me some cuttings. So that night at the beachside cabin we were renting, I potted them up. Two cuttings survived and now they are over 5ft high. 

The "tree" unfortunately the sun made it difficult for my inexpert photography

The same variety in a big pot trained as a shrub so maybe the "tree" was trained to climb the post.

The "trunks" tied to a 5 inch thick post.

Below some close-ups of the flowers.

 

Photos of my cuttings now nearly 6ft high, I am trying to grow another "tree". The leaves are much bigger than the parent plant.

The cuttings take quite readily and are self branching - I have had to take off over 20 side shoots from the 2 plants. The leaves on my plants are much larger than the parent and at this stage flatter. This maybe due to better watering and fertilizing (maybe too much).

 I have searched through all my books and on the net and haven't been able to find anything that really matches, even taking into consideration the fact  that many fuchsias grow larger here than described in British books. Some photos are very similar but the description does not tally or vice-versa.

Just recently a friend also visited Mogo and took photos of the same fuchsia.

I remembered it as all red but this much clearer photo shows a small purple corolla, maybe it was faded purple when I saw it.

As you can see the tube and the sepals are quite long and the corolla small. The flowers are quite large for singles 3 to 4 cm, the leaves 6 to 8 cm on the original, much larger on my cuttings.

 
Reply from South Africa
I think it may be a species F regia var regia.
I am no expert on species fuchsias but some year ago I was told about an herbarium specimen in the local Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden collected some 50 years earlier in an indigenous forest near Knysna a coastal village 600 km south east from Cape Town. We contacted the local forester and were given an approximate location - somewhat to our surprise we found it along a gravel road deep in the forest - the forest is said to still have elephants roaming but they have not been seen for years!
We took cuttings and I have it growing at home - I have shown photos to experts overseas and the likely ID is F regia regia a native of Brazil. We sent stick cuttings to Arthur Tickner UK for DNA fingerprinting for a definite ID but this has not yet been done.
Interestingly the postulate is that early sailors, making use of trade winds made landfall in Brazil before crossing the Atlantic to round the Cape of Good Hope en route to the Far East. Knysna used to be a small port and it is presumed sailors must have brought it there - how it landed deep in the forest remains a mystery but we did see a hedge of it in a forester's cottage. .



Reply from Ireland
Your mystery plant looks like Fuchsia regia ssp regia to me. It known as "the Climbing Fuchsia", because it will scramble through shrubs and appear high up in them to flower. Funnily enough I bought a rooted cutting of it at a show a month ago and its grown about 250mm already. There is more info on the 'net. Good Luck with your garden.

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