Lady B

Dull today, with some light rain. I suddenly realised, thanks to an email reminder, that the company I order my calendars from for Christmas every year was offering 40% off until tonight, so I had to sit down at the computer and get on with it - it's taken me a large part of the day. I know what's going to happen - next month they'll be offering 60% off! I buy these for family Christmas presents and it's quite a faff, making sure that everything's OK before finally pressing the button!
 
I haven't been beyond the garden today, so my Blip is of a lovely fuchsia hybrid named 'Lady Bacon'. Fuchsia magellanica ‘Lady Bacon’ was collected in Chile by the said Lady, aka Priscilla Dora Ponsonby (1913-2000), who was a plantswoman who collected many rare species from around the world for Raveningham Hall Gardens in Norfolk. I bet one of her workers collected it for her and named it after her! I’m sure I read somewhere that this fuchsia is in fact a naturally occurring subspecies and maybe shouldn’t have been given a cultivar name, but I can’t find that reference now!
 
Whatever its origin it’s a lovely, delicate little fuchsia with slender pink, white and purple flowers. A lot less vigorous than the usual magellanica varieties and well worth seeking out. I’ve just realised that I Blipped this fuchsia over five years ago!
 
Quote of the Day: ‘If I had my way I'd remove January from the calendar altogether and have an extra July instead' - Roald Dahl.