Lovers of the exotic Fuchsias will love this indigenous Wild Fuchsia. Phygelius is a water-loving herbaceous perennial up to 1 m tall, much loved for its long flowering season, bright colour and lush foliage for water-side gardens. Flowers are a dusky pink to dark red and hang in large bunches from tall, multi-branched flower spikes from November to May; each tube 40 mm in length. Petals split into lobes, coloured red and yellow inside – quite beautiful but difficult to see as they hang almost vertically downwards. Flowers differ from P. capensis in that P. aequalis flowers hanging to one side and P. capensis has flowers uniformly spaced around both sides of the main stem. Plant in the spray of a water feature, or in damp soils at the water’s edge, or, in areas with good rainfall, in flowerbeds. The natural habitat of the Wild Fuchsia is on rocky stream banks. Frost hardy, this is a popular garden plant in the UK along with a beautiful yellow variety, ‘Yellow Trumpets’.