WHAT COULD be a more welcome Mother's Day gift than a fluffy fuchsia, dripping its double pink flowers over the sides of a hanging basket? These traditional trailers are the Marilyn Monroes of the plant world, their drop-dead glamour accompanied by a demanding temperament. They bloom all summer, but only if you dead-head and water daily-- and dose with fertilizer every two weeks. For many gardeners, the loveliness of flowers such as the lilac `La Campanella' is well worth the trouble. But for those who seek more permanent plantings, or favor foliage over flower, hardy fuchsias might be a perfect gift.

When I stopped by the Greater Seattle Fuchsia Society Plant Sale in March, I was amazed to find far more hardy fuchsias than the familiar trailers. While few of the plants had come into bloom, many of the hardies were irresistible for their foliage alone. Large, soft leaves, bright yellow or variegated foliage - I had never thought of fuchsias as noteworthy foliage plants, but these certainly were. Combine that with the fact that the hardies thrive in sunshine or partial shade and are fairly drought tolerant as well as long-blooming, and hardy fuchsias may be the plant of the future.

If you can't quite give up those blowsy blossoms, many of the hardies have double flowers that are nearly as showy as the blooms on the trailers. If you're more impressed by numbers than size, pick out a single-flowering type; they have many more blooms than the ones with fancier flowers.

Now In Bloom Warm up your garden in a hurry this spring with the gaudy leaves of 'Bengal Tiger' (Canna 'Pretoria'). The broad swirls of green and gold stripes (to 6 feet) are a perfect foil for summer flowers of soft orange. Give cannas a warm spot with plenty of sunshine and moisture. I grow them in pots set in the shallow end of a pond. Despite their tropical looks, cannas are hardy in all but the coldest winters when well mulched.

The new, new thing in fuchsias is eggplant-colored flowers, bred by hybridizers striving for solid purple. So far, eggplant is as close as they've gotten. The hybridizers haven't yet come up with a true yellow flowering fuchsia, either, but there is a New Zealand species fuchsia with little yellow flowers. F. procumbens is reliably hardy and sufficiently low growing (to 3 inches) to use for a groundcover or in hanging baskets. It has tiny, heart-shaped leaves, and fertilized seed pods in bright burgundy that stand right up and are as big as your thumb. When the yellow flowers and the seed pods are on the plant at the same time, it makes quite a show.

The Triphyllas are a popular type of fuchsia with distinctly tubular flowers and whorls of three leaves. The currently popular `Gartenmeister Bonstedt' falls into this category, with satiny bronze-green leaves and salmon-pink flowers beloved by hummingbirds. Upright in growth, it does well in sun or partial shade, and is ideal for containers where, unlike the trailers, it pairs well with other kinds of plants. Like the trailers it is tender, but fuchsias aren't hard to overwinter. Before the first frost, prune them back to about 8 inches, strip off their leaves, then put them in a cool, dark place where they won't freeze. Water once a month (they should never completely dry out), and bring them back out into the sunshine in the spring. Fuchsias bloom on new wood, so you can cut off any straggly growth, start watering and fertilizing, and your plants are all set for the new season.

Area fuchsia clubs are booming with enthusiastic and knowledgeable members, and joining one is the best way to learn more, as well as to buy new and unusual plants. The Greater Seattle Fuchsia Society is having another sale on May 19, at 12735 First Ave. N.E. Society members are donating all the plants for sale. (Call 206-364-7735 for more information.) To see a wide array of fuchsias, mark your calendars for the Annual Fuchsia Show, held at the Hiram Chittenden Locks in Ballard on July 28 and 29. Lists of dependably hardy fuchsias and handouts of local events and growers are available at these gatherings, or write to the Northwest Fuchsia Society, P.O. Box 33071, Seattle, WA 98133-0071.

Valerie Easton, a horticultural librarian who writes about plants and gardens for Pacific Northwest magazine, is the co-author of "Artists in Their Gardens" from Sasquatch Books. Her e-mail address is vjeaston@aol.com.