Fuchsia Arborescens:
This is a somewhat rare plant, but very hearty, grows quickly and gets quite big. It is zone 10 and needs to be taken inside for the winter if you aren't in at least that zone.
Start the seeds indoors in a nice loose seed starting mix or coconut coir and lightly cover them. They don't need stratification. DO NOT PUT ON A HEATING PAD or put them under incandescent lighting or other lighting that will put out heat. These like room temperature and they get very crabby when they get too warm.
They're nearly indestructible even as tiny sprouts, so long as they don't get hot or subjected to soggy soil. If you have abundant germination like I did and have too many in one spot, you can tweeze them apart and transplant them elsewhere even if they haven't gotten their first true leaves yet. Keep the soil damp with a spray bottle but don't let it be perpetually soggy.
I germinated mine in an egg carton and transplanted to small coconut coir pots when they grew their first real leaves. The coconut coir pots are great for fuchsias because it prevents any "wet feet". They like to be evenly moist and will get grouchy if they sit in water, so having a pot that drains well is important.
They will do well under grow lights but limit the hours of light to sixteen or less. I accidentally (automated lighting system snafu!) subjected them to 18 hours of light/day for a week and nearly killed them all due to nutrient burn.
Most of them bounced back, though. It turns out it's pretty hard to kill these.
Pot up whenever they stop getting bigger, and stop at a one gallon pot while they're still indoors. At the one gallon size they'll try to bloom, and then you'll have pollen EVERYWHERE, so if you can't get them outside you'll want to pinch off any flower buds that appear.
When it's in the 60s outside, you can harden them off (they don't need much babying there either) and place them in part-sun. Keep them out of afternoon sun for the happiest plant. I kept mine in a 5 gallon grow bag all summer and fall and it was very happy. I potted up to 8 gallons so I expect it will get much bigger next year.
Once it gets to a foot or two tall you can start pruning it for shape, by pinching off the new growth if you want it to branch out or cutting off shoots if you want it to be more like a tree.
Feed it weekly when you want growth, withhold feeding if you can't pot it up right away and it's out of room, and water every few days or when the first inch of the soil is dry.
After blooming, it will produce round, dark blue/purple berries. If you want to get seeds, let the berries mature on the plant until the skin is dull-looking and it resembles a blueberry. After picking the biggest, fattest, juiciest one you can find, split it in half with an xacto knife and squeeze the pulp onto a piece of plain (not glossy) paper and spread the juice and pulp around. Let it dry and the seeds will come right up.
The fruit is also edible and the birds LOVE it. It's also bright freaking purple, so if you don't want purple bird poops, pick the fruit before the birds do.
I found that it kept flowering like mad even though I never ever deadheaded it.
The seeds you're getting from me may grow up with more than one leaf shape/style. There's a bright/light green glossy leaf, and a darker, matter green with red veins.
I think that's the long and short of it. I'll attach some pictures later. :D
