Oh boy.

Well, your climate is not helping matters. Fuchsias are mostly either from the lands of eternal spring in the tropical Andes, or further south in cool-equable climates of southern South America. They're not designed for high heat or severe cold.

When it gets too hot, Fuchsias' biochemistry basically shuts down. This makes them disease-prone and pest-prone.

You've probably got both an insect pest and a disease--perhaps bacterial. You might be getting a root rot, which would explain the wilting.

I dunno what to do about the insect pest. You could try hosing off the leaves and then spraying them with insecticidal soap.

Disease will be a problem as long as it's hot.

You might try watering in the morning instead of the evening. I'm not convinced you're overwatering if it's that hot; Fuchsias need plenty of moisture especially in hot, dry weather. Just make sure that the soil stays well-aerated; otherwise the soil will be full of harmful anaerobic bacteria. If it is in a hanging pot it probably drains pretty fast.

By the way, although the baskets often say "full sun", you know that Fuchsias are fairly shade-tolerant and can't stand full sun exposure (at least, not all day) at your latitude, right? I assume that your canopy cuts the sun exposure, but I thought I should mention that if not.

They grow a little like tuberous begonias, except perhaps a bit cooler actually. Native to similar tropical montain cloudforest type environments. Mine are all uprights growing in the ground; hanging baskets need more care that I don't have time for. I have dozens of them. By the way, if you really like them, you could probably grow a few types of them in the ground. People used to do that in Victorian times, covering them up with mulch for the winter and letting them freeze back. Fuchsia magellanica and F. campos-portoi are probably both hardy enough for you to overwinter in the ground with a heavy mulch over them. Growing in the ground, in partial shade (say a few hours of morning sun), their roots stay cooler.

Good luck. I hope it makes it.

Hi atash, and thanks for all the info. I don't know if I have a suitable location for in ground fuchsia - too much sun and a big labrador retriever. Most of my plants are in containers - can I do one in a big container?

Comparing my fuchsia to a tuberous begonia helps me greatly. I tried growing those stinkers on this same deck 3 years in a row, but in floor pots, not hanging baskets. I watched them go soggy and die away each year. I'm sure now that a combination of too much water and way too much heat did them in.

Yesterday I fertilized with Miracle-Gro and this morning I sprayed with Bon-Neem insecticidal soap. We're supposed to have a break in the weather for the rest of the week - rain today and then 2 days of low to mid 80s - whew! But then right back into the 90s. This is really not normal weather - the normal high for yesterday was 82, but it got up to 91.

Throughout all this leaf and blossom dropping this plant is not giving up - it continuously has new growth all over - at the top and at every possible growth point - and it's still producing blossoms. But the new growth is affected by this sickness too, and the blossoms only last a day or 2.

How often should I use the insecticidal soap?

I'm going to water her in the morning as you suggested, and measure what water I put on, so I can keep better track of this baby. It's not giving up, so I'm not. :-)

Stormy

The combination of water and heat is probably breeding bacteria. That's why some folks grow them in open baskets lined with coir fiber or something like that.

The neem should take out a few pathogens.

>>How often should I use the insecticidal soap?

I think it's once every week or every other week. Check the label. Continue at least one treatment past the point that you don't notice bugs or eggs.

>>Most of my plants are in containers - can I do one in a big container?

Oh yes. You can use a less-vigorous trailing type and let it spill over the sides (a big, round-sided decorative pot would probably work best for that look), but an upright type in any kind of pot might be better because then the growth will lift the flowers up closer to eye level.

Beware that some cultivars sold as "uprights" have lax growth. Because a lot of people like to train them it was never considered a fault. You could stake or train these (cascades, fans, "standards" or in other words "lollipop trees"), or look for cultivars with sturdier growth and let them grow into their natural "fountain" shape.

Upright types have the advantage of letting you use types of Fuchsias that would tolerate the heat better. F. campos-portoi reputedly can stand some, and F. triphylla is an anomalous warm-tropical type from the Caribbean. F. triphylla and its hybrids are gorgeous; they have more attractive foliage than most Fuchsias and their flower colors are brilliant. I only have one cultivar, because Seattle is too cold to overwinter them (anything much colder than Los Angeles is too cold for them...) except for a few rare hybrids with hardier types--that are still rather tender but I can overwinter them as freeze-backs with a mulch.