Photo: hanging fuchsia/Stadtwerke Erfurt
Own fuchsia breeding for egapark and former master gardener Jürgen Meister
The egapark presents more than 250 fuchsias on its park grounds. This means that the garden park has one of the most extensive collections of popular ornamental plants in Germany. Hanging, upright or semi-hanging fuchsias present their multicolored bell-shaped flowers in the courtyard between egapark halls 2 and 3. Hardy fuchsias impress connoisseurs and gardening newbies alike from the end of June until the first frost in the egapark sculpture garden, staged by fine art. This great collection is now being honored with its own fuchsia for the egapark and the long-time master gardener responsible for special shows, the fuchsia lover Jürgen Meister.
As part of the Nordhausen fuchsia, perennial and rose market on July 27, 2024, a hanging fuchsia was named “Gärtnermeister Jürgen Meister” and a large-flowered fuchsia was named “egapark”. The godmother was the well-known MDR Garten presenter Diana Fritzsche–Grimmig.
Excellent reputation beyond Thuringia
The baptism was initiated by the “Fuchsia Friends Harz”. The breeder of the new varieties is Hartwig Schütt from Cuxhaven. Master gardener Uwe Schachschal accepted the honor on behalf of egapark: “These varieties will enrich our fuchsia collection and receive a worthy place in the egapark presentation. We are equally proud that our former master gardener Jürgen Meister is receiving such a wonderful honor. As a fuchsia expert, he ensured for many years that the egapark fuchsia collection had an excellent reputation beyond Thuringia.”
The variety of fuchsias in egapark goes back to the generous donation of a fuchsia collection from Willi Grund from Reutlingen in 1991. The master gardener is considered the German fuchsia connoisseur and ran the municipal nursery in Reutlingen for around 30 years. His connection to his profession was extremely great. When interest in the exotic beauties increased significantly in Germany in the mid-1970s, Willi Grund began to sustainably promote the spread of fuchsias in Germany. During his life he recorded and described more than 20,000 fuchsia varieties.
Thanks to the fuchsia expert's extensive donation, the attractive bloomers from the evening primrose family are one of the park's special features and attract fuchsia lovers from near and far every year during the flowering period from June to September. The egapark fuchsia collection impresses with its abundance of flowers in white, pink, salmon, red and violet as well as two-tone flowers.
Plant lovers will find a wide variety of garden themes and more than 100,000 plant varieties in egapark Inspiration. The garden park is active in various gardening networks and cooperates with, among others, the Society of Staudenfreunde. In addition to the fuchsias, 150 varieties of pelargoniums and 64 historical and new iris varieties are also on display. The high horticultural quality of the collections impresses experts and plant lovers alike. The basis for this is the specialist knowledge and enthusiastic work of the egapark gardeners to preserve and expand these collections.
Background information fuchsias
Fuchsias are a species-rich genus. Over 100 wild species and varieties are known today. Most come from the mountain forests of Central and South America, with a few species found in Tahiti and New Zealand.
Fuchsia has been known as a plant genus in Europe since 1696. Charles Plumier brought it back from a South American research trip and named it after the important botanist and doctor Leonhart Fuchs (1501-1566). By the way, Leonhart Fuchs studied philosophy and “natural science” at the University of Erfurt, among other things. There are over 100 species and approximately 17,000 varieties worldwide.
Since the 19th century, thousands of cultivars have been created through crossbreeding. The wealth of shapes and colors is great, and the possible uses are diverse, for example in pots, for bed planting, as a hanging plant, as a man-high stem or as a bonsai. The flowers are available in sizes between 2 and 150 mm. They show trumpets, bells, tubes, are lushly filled or simply blooming.
Source: Stadtwerke Erfurt