Is It Time for a Change?
Donald Helsel
Crescent City Branch
The year 2004 has not been the best of years for the Crescent City Branch. For the first time in several years our membership has dropped slightly. Plant sales at the fair, our major moneymaker, also suffered a slight decline. Perhaps our worst blow was suffered when new members who were at first enthused, became progressively discouraged as the mite and the demands of a regular spraying program took its toll. Even experienced growers became discouraged and ripped out fuchsia plants by the roots, all due to fuchsia gall mite infestations that this year seemed uncontrollable. Worst of all, our club has to share at least part of the blame for this sad state of affairs.
For many years our club (and others branches as well) have been bewitched by the beauty of the super large, double flowered fuchsia varieties, none of which have even a sliver of mite resistance. These beauties have dominated our shows, nurseries favor them because they sell and we ourselves perpetuate the problem with the limited hybridizing we do here in America. When we do hybridize the emphasis is usually on even bigger flowers. Ask yourself if you know the name of a double flowered fuchsia with mite resistance, even a little resistance. Unless I am mistaken, I believe ‘Santa Cruz’, a semi-double is the closest we come to a double with strong mite resistance. That is sad.
So what am I saying here? Simply this; it is time for a change. The fuchsia gall mite is destroying our hobby as we know it and no real insecticide relief is in sight. As I see it, the only salvation possible lies in the mite resistant fuchsia species and those few single flowered hybrids that retain some natural mite resistance. We all know our fuchsia world is composed more and more of older people. We are hard pressed to bring in younger members to our chapters. And no wonder. The first thing most chapters do to new members is give them cuttings to get them started. Usually they are our favored varieties, big beautiful doubles, all vulnerable to the fuchsia mite. Then we wonder what happened when the new members get frustrated, pull up their plants and quit the hobby. Almost as bad is our preaching, at meetings, the need for regular spray programs, with powerful insecticides, that some view as poisoning our environment and more specifically our gardens. The scenario gets even worse if you have kids playing in your yard.
Is there an answer? I am not sure but here is what our branch is doing. In our programs we intend to emphasize the mite resistant qualities of species type plants. Our club project plants for beginners and new members will only be mite resistant plants. Other varieties will be for experienced members willing to tackle the increased work necessary to successfully grow non-resistant plants. Members who start cuttings for the club raffles will increase the number of mite resistant plants offered. We will have programs focusing on species plants and their mite resistant qualities. Members who play at or are serious about hybridizing will increase their efforts with mite resistant plants. (After all, our plants came from species originally, but 200 years of hybridizing has breed out the mite resistance in favor of large colorful flowers). We have several members who are searching available resources with the intent of creating a list of fuchsia plants that are reported to carry partial or full mite resistant qualities. We will post this on our web site (http://www.ccfuchsia.net) so it is available for reference by anyone interested, once we complete the list.
We hope this is a start for our branch, and we hope other branches follow suit, emphasizing the need to grow and develop more mite resistant plants. More importantly, AFS leaders needs to actively champion the cause, beat the drum, marshal resources, and take an active and leading role with this issue. I know President Rodney Bergquist frequently does a presentation on mites and their control. This is a start (Bless you Rodney.) At the recent AFS Convention 2004, I listened to Dr. Peter Baye and Mary Cooke, separately discuss the need for hybrids developed from mite resistant species. They were both right on target with their thoughts as well as their actions. Perhaps Dr. Baye said it best when he suggested that possibly in the hobbyist ranks, with the many random fuchsia crosses many of us try, there may be that special cross which retains mite resistance and beauty in the same plant. Such a foundation plant can lead to other favorable crosses. We don’t have that plant yet.
Some may think I am proposing we throw away all the many beautiful varieties we now grow. Throw them away so they are lost and extinct. That is not the case at all. Those varieties deserve a special place in our fuchsia world. They represent 200 years of effort in hybridizing and should be preserved. There will always be some of us who are willing to expend the extra effort these plants require.
However, there is a need, now, for new approaches, new ideas, and new effort. As I said, that time is now. We must literally fight for our fuchsia hobby so future hobbyists can share the same joys we have experienced.
Incidentally, most of us go through phases in our fuchsia hobby. Single flowers, double flowers, species, over a period of time we try them all. Many of us overlook hybridizing or feel it is too complicated. Well, let me tell you hybridizing can be fun also. You never know when you will hit on one of those special crosses. I myself got lucky on my first try and created ‘Convention 2004.’ Any one of you could be just as lucky and create a special mite resistant and also beautiful variety. You may have the making of that cross sitting in your garden right now as an unfertilized flower. Give it a try.