Overgrown Fuchsia
Natbat
Posts: 62
When I inherited my garden there were few plants, a large fuchsia being the main inhabitant. Over the past three years i have largely neglected it, leaving it to grow woody and shower me with hundreds of flowers. It is now surpassing fence height, with a girth of the same length. I have decided it is time to train it into a more fitting size for my garden, however, a google has brought up people saying to cut fuchsia to a very low level in spring.
My question is, if i like the height, can I leave much of the current growth on, or should I cut back hard?
A sub question, is the fact it is so woody going to mean (like lavendula) that it wont take kindly to a hard prune in spring?
I have attached a photo. It is looking a bit rough this time of the year, but is normally pretty lush midsummer.
Thanks all 
Posts
Forgot the photo!
Even woody fuschias can be cut very hard back. I've chopped one back virtually to ground level a few times and it recovers well. If you like the height you could cut back about half, to encourage flowering at lower levels.
That's super, thanks KT53, I will try and be brave this spring and reduce it by half
My original reply wasn't too clear. I meant cut about half of the growth back to ground level, not cut all of it back to half its current height. That said, there would be no harm in cutting half back to ground level and the rest to half its current height. The one I cut back to the ground this Spring is over 3 feet high again.