Fuchsia plants certainly haven’t been bred for the flavour and quality of their fruits, which I’m sure hasn’t helped with their popularity in fruit-growing communities.
The only fuchsia berry I tried tasted peppery and a bit chemically. It was quite similar to the experience of chewing nicotine gum!
It was not something I would have recommended until I came across a company in my country (Thompson & Morgan) who apparently bred a fuchsia specifically for its fruit around 2016 or so, creatively naming it the ‘Fuchsiaberry’ (lol!).
The report I read online described it as having a very pleasant grape or blueberry flavour with a crisp flesh, which does indeed sound very nice.
However, almost all traces of this plant seem to have disappeared online and you certainly can’t seem to purchase it anywhere anymore, unfortunately. It makes me wonder if perhaps it was not as tasty as they initially claimed and they decided to discontinue it.
So, to those of you who grow or have tasted certain varieties, would you recommend the fruit or is it not worth the hassle?
Hi! I have them, i grow them to harvest fruits… they are good to eat and to lower the heart pressure of my wife! The flavor is like a spicy light sweet apple.
Hi. No. I have the plants on pots and some on ground… diferent varieties. They are alive all year. The diferent varieties have diferent flower colors, fruits and flavor profiles.
I have a large flambeau Chilean guava which set fruit for the first time last year but didn’t fully ripen. It was nonetheless sweet and fruity tasting. Hopefully will have better luck this year, although the summer weather has been far from ideal this season.
I also have a small seedling grown CG which is probably 2 or so years from flowering but will hopefully improve fruit set on the large flambeau.
Fuchsia splendens is reported to be one of the best taseting and your discription seems to be spot on according to this profile. I have wanted to try some for the longest time my self.
Interesting information, thank you! I would love to source a F. Splendens but it doesn’t appear readily available in my country from my cursory search. I would probably have to know some fuchsia collectors or perhaps go the seed/import route. I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled nonetheless!
I grow three varieties of showy hardy Fuchsias, e.g., Double Otto. I guess that these are the species F. megallanica. I was wondering if their fruits are worth tasting; I usually remove the fruits while they are small, but I’ve seen some big ones that were missed. I assume that they are at least not poisonous.
I have grown what they call the ones just labeled as flowers. They look great in stores but ours have met a short demise due to wildlife every time we grow it. We have grown impatient flowers in that pot since it is my grandma’s pot. My thought is the impatient never seem to be bothered while these always are. In fact they seem to be a wildlife favorite. The things we seem to struggle with wildlife eating here are pawpaw, these and mulberry. This is my 3rd year trying pawpaw because the first year the fence fell on them and wildlife got to them, second year they never came on and this year the fence blew on them again but they seem to have gotten through the hit due to the pots. This year I netted the pawpaw to secure them. Obviously you don’t want flowers that need netting and we got them for the flower purpose.
This thread got me curious about them. I have not committed to taking the plunge yet, but I likely will snag one point of sale when the opportunity arises.
If you are willing to start from seed, I saw some on Amazon & Etsy, and it appears that Trade Winds keeps an eye out for several varieties in the family.
Unlike some of the stuff I already have in pots, I do think I know where I’d actually put these. I’m starting to think about things that could be sacrificial for the things that will be attracted toward my yard. I’d hope to get to try some too, but if I can fill up the critters before they get to my presumed favorites, I’ll be happy.
It has been my experience there are not things to be “sacrificial”. I have heard people talk about that but the reality is there just seems to be things they are more likely to target than others and will come back until they are gone. With my pawpaw, mulberry, peach, and fuchsia they came back for them all or finished them off all overnight. Some things they don’t seem to want to target in my area for some reason. Those being my pears, plums, apples, persimmon, blueberry, arctic raspberry, asparagus, buried treasure huckleberry and cranberry. According to clark plants taste similar to certain foods for us. So something like a Callery pear will taste like a vegetable while another plant may be like a peach to them. They will still go after the things I mentioned but not as intensely as other things. Also some things just rebound much faster and easier than others.
Also, just like us, they will have things that are like fast food or junk food that they will just eat because it is there no matter the better choices elsewhere.
I had some Fuschia Splendens seeds, but I couldn’t get them to sprout. Extremely small seeds, which is something I’ve had trouble with. I heard the fruit had a nice taste, and they have beautiful flowers, so hopefully some of the seeds survived in the raised bed and will sprout randomly. I may have one, but I don’t know what the sprouts look like, so it could also be a weed.
