[hamstergbert]

mostly a jelly although there are years when a chap just cannot be bothered and in those years it do be jam!   Apart from the lethargy element another key factor is how good the berries are after the feathered hooligans have pinched 'their' share!   When there are fuchsia berries of half or less the volume of the crabapples it is almost inevitably jelly!

[Madame Cholet]

I have a hardy fuschia in the garden which is sheltered would a hedge of survive in the open in northamptonshire.

How far apart would you plant say currents and goosberries and hybris to use as a hedge.

[hamstergbert]

Theres lots of fuchsia hedges in the West of Ireland that put up with the weather hammering in from the Atlantic.  I have hardy fuchsias (no idea what variety - cutting from the garden of my late aunt fifteen years or so ago) that is tough as old boots and flowers magnificently up to the first hard frosts - light frosts just annoy it.  Vigorous rooters too - used some apparently lifeless sticks from the spring dormant cutback to stick into a small area to dissade dogs from fouling it and once the growth season started half of them struck and commenced growing!

The berries are nice and juicy too if I can get to them before the birds (save them in the freezer until I have enough).