WHO WAS NUMBER ONE?
By Dorothy Erickson

While browsing through my latest book acquisition – Volume 2 of “The World Book of Fuchsias” by Jock Penny, I discovered that “Mantilla” was the first fuchsia registered by the American Fuchsia Society. It is Number 0001, and was
introduced by Victor Reiter in 1948. His “Irish Rose” was number 0002, “Gulliver” was number 0003, “Valentine” number 0004, “Sea Foam” number 0005 and “Pink Shower” was number 0006. These were his hybrids for that fi rst listing. In total there were 22 introductions including some by Clem Schnabel, Horace Tiret and Gus Niederholzer, all pioneers in fuchsia hybridizing in 1948. AFS registrations hit number 0050 by the end of 1949! In today’s age, we now see some European hybridizers introducing that many new plants and more in one year. Of course the other side of the coin is that U.S. hybridizers are introducing virtually none.

It wasn’t until 1962 that Number 0500 was assigned to “Not So Big” by Machado – 14 years after “Mantilla”.

There are still hundreds of old varieties around that were hybridized before 1948, plants that we still see growing in gardens For instance, “Winston Churchill – 1942, Constance – 1935, Lord Byron – about 1900; and on and on.

Hopefully we can keep some of the old timers growing in our gardens. Plants like Lena which was introduced in 1862,
long before AFS was even thought of. And so the history of fuchsias marches on!