a new edition of the fuchsia index is established.
Up to now, it is the third edition in its more than 30 years history.
The story of the fuchsia index began in the 1980th with Bernd Franzen, his fuchsia enthusiasm and a long illnes. His idea was "an Index of all Fuchsia breeds in the Internet". During the days, he was not able to leave home, he realized his idea.
He programmed a database and filled it with all the information he could get.
One of his sources was "Willi Grunds Fuchsienverzeichnis" that is still available as a huge printed book. Additionally, he used fuchsia nursery catalogues - in that times only available in printed form.
In the 1980th the number of fuchsia breeds had been still manageable.
In the 1990th Bernd Franzen and Manfried Kleinau developed the idea to add pictures and more information about those fuchsias available in nurserys. But Bernd Franzen's software got to it's limits.
Sponsored by the DDFGG Philipp Crocoll programmed the second edition of the Fuchsia Index. Since that time the Fuchsia Index is 'placed under the roof of the DDFGG' it is based on the support of those who are inspired by fuchsia. Sending pictures and information a network of fuchsia friends and Fuchsia Index friends increased.
There were also regression in the works. Legal aspects forced us to stop to publish the sources of supply. The alternative would have been a commercial Fuchsia Index, which never had been the idea of the founders. Additionally, during a long period technical problems caused difficulties to use or read the index.
Due to the technical progress of the last years, it was of main interest to establish the third edition of the Fuchsia Index. The programming was done by Hilke Wegner. She improved the usebility for searching in the index and created a backend for the operator to reduce the working input for the support.
There are also some changes on the support side of the Fuchsia Index. During the last years Manfried Kleinau took care of the dataset. Since the year 2015 Anja Weiß, a young woman from the region of the ' Niederrhein' with a great enthusiasm for Fuchsias, is responsable.
Although there are a lot of changes, some things will last: The Fuchsia Index is one of the largest information source for Fuchsia. Up to october 2017 the Index offers information about more than 16 900 breeds and wild forms. Among those more than 4730 breeds are illustrated.
The Index is free, independent and non-commercial, based on the commitment and assistance of fuchsia enthusiasts, giving voluntarily their pictures, information, and notes to breeds, but also incorrect data.
Enjoy the fuchsias and the Fuchsia Index.
