| Fushias are amazingly hardy plants. Once established will cope with almost anything. You can cut back to the ground if you like and it will shoot up again. However, if you are in a frosty area, new growth will be burnt off in winter. I'd prune off enough to enable clearance of the door and leave it until spring for a major overhaul. If you are in a cold area, your fushia may possibly lose its leaves and look quite dead. Don't despair - you won't have killed it. It's just waiting for warm weather again. I have found the small leaf/flower fushias (Tom Thumb??) incredibly drought resistant. I have a deep pink/purple and also a pale pink - both large shrubs and cope admirably with both heavy frost and drought. The larger fancier ones have succumbed to the drought. I also have one with teeny tiny flowers, so small you almost need a magnifying glass to identify it as a fushia, which is planted next to the outdoor gas water heater. This apparently provides enough warmth to protect it over winter - it remains in leaf and continues flowering. There are also a couple of New Zealand native ground cover fushias which share the hardiness of their shrubby relatives. | 
