This beautiful, exotic plant is sometimes also known as Justicia rizzinii or Justicia floribunda. Despite it’s common name it is not a Fuchsia at all but does originally hail from Brazil. It bears it’s scarlet and yellow tropical, pendulous blooms non stop throughout the winter and spring months when most other plants are at their worst.
Ideally this plant should be grown in a pot so it can be moved in to the warmth of a heated conservatory, greenhouse or light windowsill in autumn before the first frosts. The plant can be moved outside during summer when risk of frost has passed where it will thrive in sun or semi-shade if watered and fed regularly. In the mildest areas of the UK it can be left outside in a very sheltered, frost free area. However in most areas it will require winter protection.
This exquisite shrub makes a neat mound approximately 60cm (24in) tall and 60cm (24in) wide. It’s desirability is increased by the fact that so few other plants give such colour in the colder darker months. The dark, evergreen foliage makes a great background for the blooms.
Jacobinia is quite a little known plant and so makes a great winter talking point that many of your gardening friends will be wowed by. It not only holds the great accolade of the RHS Award of Garden Merit, which is thought of by many as the gardening Oscar, but also has been categorised as RHS Perfect For Pollinators.
Mark Snelling.
