Correct me if I'm wrong,
Fuchsia is the botanical name, There are Species and hybrids, I believe one of the species has a vining habit.
We usually refer to Fuchsias as Uprights, bush, lax bush and trailing. Some are classed as hardy, hardy with protection and others have to have winter protection. Most of the triphyllias need to be kept even warmer.

A......

Aftermidnight is right; Fuchsia IS the botanical name; it is named after Leonhard Fuchs, German botanist. The color is named after the plant--but I always thought it was odd that the color that people often refer to as "fuchsia" (soft of a purplish shade of pink) is NOT a typical Fuchsia color! Most Fuchsias are flaming scarlet with eggplant purple corolla, or various shades of pink, white, salmon, cerise, carmine, etc, with corolla usually some shade of purple or white. Yes, they do come in "Fuchsia" too! (I have exactly one that is hot fuchsia pink) Species Fuchsias often have striking green tips on the ends of their scarlet-graduating-into-salmon sepals. Fuchsia procumbens is luridly colored with green and orange stripes (!) and blue (!!) pollen.

>>is it

Fuchsia is an entire genus, so it's more like "they" than it.

To my ears "vine" still means "grapevine", but I know what you mean--"climber".

Fuchsias don't climb. Aftermidnight, the ones you are thinking of are technically "clamberers"--they grow up among trees and then lean on them for support. But they don't cling and have no means to hang on. The droopy branches lean on tree branches, which supports the shoot, and after a while it starts looking like a climber. I have one--Fuchsia regia. For some reason mine have never gotten very big. It is one of the hardiest species despite coming from subtropical Brazil. There are specimens down the Oregon coast which have gotten huge.

If a Fuchsia that grows up into a tree for support seems odd, over in neighboring Chile they have bamboos (several Chusquea species) that do the same thing.

Pat, if you want to grow one in Houston, you might be interested in the one Aftermidnight mentioned, because it is one of the few (or maybe the only one?!) that tolerates heat and humidity. As Aftermidnight mentioned, tho, it is NOT very hardy--it gets into trouble at about freezing and really doesn't like temps even close. You could grow it between hard winters, or you could take starts, or maybe with enough mulch you could get the base to come back (I don't know--my winters are much longer than yours so it's not generally an option here). It is a particularly striking Fuchsia, tho, and it comes in many named forms. It's usually an upright but there are a few trailing versions. I think it looks better as an upright, tho, more in character I think.

Thanks atash, I will remember "clamberers". I had read about a fuchsia that grew into trees somewhere along the line and assumed it grew like a vine.
I have f. procumbens and it's pollen is blue to my eye. I have found it very easy to grow from seed, in fact it was my very first attempt at growing Fuchsias from seed, I just squished the berry, removed the seeds and planted them immediately. It's supposed to be hardy here but so far I have just grown it in pots. I started a cutting in a small pot, kept potting it up into deeper, but not wider pots, so when it is planted out the roots will be quite deep in the ground. I gave it to a friend to try in her garden. I'll be interested to know if this is going to work.

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Aftermidnight, I have F. procumbens too, and it is more coldhardy than it seems that it "should" be. It is supposed to be from the northern part of the North Island of New Zealand, which has a climate "like a humid version of Los Angeles", but it is fairly coldhardy.

I do get some dieback in some years and not others--I think maybe heavy rain some years softens it up. I have had it a long time and never lost it completely. Some years it has spread all over the place, and some it has not performed as well.

(for others reading this conversation, it is not a typical Fuchsia, being one of two oddballs native to New Zealand, the other being a fairly good-sized, fairly hardy deciduous tree).

Let me know if you would like to try F. regia from seed. It is quite coldhardy; more so than either F. procumbens or, astonishingly, most forms of F. magellanica.

I have some other species that are more striking but not sure how hardy they are. They were rated H1 "tender" by the grower, but she rated F. xspeciosa H1 as well, and that one is fairly hardy actually (it LOOKS as tho it should be tender, but it is not). F xspeciosa is one of my wife's favorites.

atash, I'd love to try some F. regia from seed. Send me an email, that is if it's working, some say it isn't. So far I've grown F.'s boliviana and boliviana alba from seed successfully but lost the mother plants this winter. I've also got F. xspeciosa, I don't know if I'd try this as a hardy though. I planted Alice Hoffman out last year but it didn't come back. Hawkshead is the only other one I've planted out, it comes back every year. I thought I had F. excortacata but it turned out to be wrong, the closest I've come to identifying it is WALZ Polka. I'm trying to find a source for seed of F.'s arborescens and paniculata, I did a lot of searching on the internet to find out the difference between these two, apparently if you've got a keen eye the difference is in the tube shape and leaves, one has smooth edges and one has serrated leaves.

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Aftermidnight, I'll try the email functionality. I've gotten it to work with someone else so we'll see. If it doesn't work send an email to atash AT mutuallyassuredsurvival DOT com.

I have had F. paniculata, BRIEFLY. It had beautiful foliage and was easy to root. I planted it out in the spring, when there is some sort of cool-growing pathological fungus active in my yard, and it killed it. Too bad.

It's not very hardy. It might be OK if you plant it deep and pile mulch on it. That seems to work for some folks. You have to do the same with with F. boliviana--plant deep, pile mulch. It is VERY tender. Protect some cuttings as insurance. I have both the red and the "alba" (just white tubes not the whole flower). Love 'em. The red is blooming now. The alba has been a little sluggish, having overwintered outdoors.

F. xspeciosa has grown outdoors for me in Seattle for many years, with no protection. Bear in mind that parts of Seattle are virtually a USDA z9a. However, I can't imagine that it wouldn't take somewhat lower with a mulch. I'd risk it if I were you and just take some cuttings as insurance.

I've got some other interesting species I'll tell you about. They tend to be rather "exotic" looking and flashy, but not as floriferous as the hybrids.

I'm not clear on the difference between F. paniculata and F. arborescens so I'm no help. F. paniculata (maybe arborescens too if they are really close as I suspect they are) is the only Fuchsia I know of that is FRAGRANT! (well, fancy that, it's also the only type that looks like it is designed for butterflies, which can smell, instead of hummingbirds, who can not!).

Thanks everyone for commenting on the botanical name for the fuchsia.
It's been interesting.