Viewing comments posted by Xeramtheum

Definitely likes blazing hot sun. I was skeptical but it's been in the ground only a month with dark brown mulch and blooming like crazy.l

Pink Sapphire seems to bloom more readily than The Pearl.

WARNING!

Clerodendrum indicum can be invasive if planted in the ground! They make huge roots as thick as 2 inches. One managed to snake a root underneath a concrete slab driveway and pop up 20 feet away from the main plant!

I just got finished digging all of mine up .. no easy task and of course couldn't get all the roots. I'm praying weed killer will control what's left.

If you want to grow this plant, do so in a container and on concrete because the roots can escape through the hole in the pot. They will bloom in containers .. the best size would be 5+ gallons.

Radyera urens is a member of the Malvaceae Family of plants and distantly related to Hibiscus.

Starting from seed:

I winter sowed 8 seeds and 6 rotted. I recommend keeping the soil on the dry side of moist. Two germinated successfully. They were sown February 6th and germination occurred on February 25th.

During the 3 weeks since sowing we had wildly fluctuating temperatures as high as 75°F and as low as 29°F. I planted the seeds to their depth and nicked half. The two that germinated were not nicked.

I have noticed that they do not seem to be self fertile as I've hand pollinated every flower that opens with no success. They are however fertile with Luna Pink Swirl and, I would imagine, other hardy hibiscuses. I have 8 Luna X Midnight plants growing from seeds I collected last year. Can't wait to see some blooms.

**UPDATE**

I was able to get seeds using a technique of microwaving pollen which in some cases allows plants that are not self fertile to create seeds. Here is a link for how to do it.

The thread "Microwaving Pollen & Seeds from Midnight Marvel!" in Hibiscus forum

I waited until the fruit was mushy before harvesting it. When I cut open the fruit, it was a sticky, pulpy mess. I used a strainer and vegetable brush to extract the seed.

I placed the pulp with seeds in the strainer and, under running water, took the vegetable brush and firmly pushed the seeds and pulp down into the strainer with a side-to-side motion, causing the pulp to extrude out of the strainer.

It worked astonishingly well and I think this method would work on other fruits with soft, overripe flesh to extract seeds.

Trichosanthes kirilowii is dioeceous and night blooming.

Nancyana aka Nancy's Revenge is a runner. It puts out side shoots and probably could get out of hand very quickly. This is the first time I've seen a "running" elephant ear try to run in a pot. Normally, in my experience with "runners," they only do this when in the ground.

Gets the best coloring and patterning in very bright indirect or filtered sun.

This is a winter bloom in the greenhouse and the color is not as rich as summer blooms.

Black Runner lives up to its name when planted in the ground. It will send out runners everywhere and could become quickly invasive. I have never seen this happen when grown in pots.

The seeds appear to be hard coat seeds suggesting that they probably have a long shelf life.

A word about harvesting seeds from V. caracalla, both the Corkscrew and Snail Vines. Once the pod dries and is removed from the plant, split open the pod inside a plastic baggie because the second you split the pod it literally snaps open scattering some of the seeds.

Proboscidea parviflora var. hohokamiana is considered a weed .. a bad one at that. It's also considered a proto-carnivorous plant though the jury is still out on that .. it's not unusual to see dead insects trapped on the leaves but so far no 'digestive' juices have been found on this plant. It could be considered 'carnivorous' in another way though.

The flower is gorgeous though the scent is really icky .. I can't keep these in the greenhouse when in bloom because they smell so bad! The immature seedpod is edible while still green - it gets about 6 - 8 inches long. Once mature, the green bits fall off and you are left with this very scary looking hard pod. When the pod splits it becomes terrifying! The points are like needles. The individual 'teeth' on the pod are serrated and very, VERY sharp. I can attest to that.

When open, the first set of seeds in the pod falls right out. The second and third sets of seeds hang on to the pod for a long time. One reason it is considered carnivorous is that passing animals will get caught on a pod, which will embed itself into flesh. Large animals like cows can be hurt by these pods. Smaller animals that have a pod attached to them can actually die. When they try to bite it off them, they end up embedding it even further into their flesh and the serrated 'teeth' will lacerate their mouths. Ultimately the animal is either maimed severely or dies of infection or blood loss. That's when the 2nd & 3rd set of seeds fall out of the pod and germinate in the decaying flesh of its victim.

Puya plants are extremely easy to start from seed. The down side to this is that the plant takes decades to bloom and then promptly dies.

The Shidare JMG climbing and twining genes have become recessive or completely turned off .. it is a trailing Morning Glory.

The Sun Smile series of Morning Glorys are more trailing than climbing.

The Double Blue Picotee is an amazing JMG .. you never really know what you're going to get since it throws some really awesome mutants from time to time.

The Vigna Genus is interesting. It's all legumes of one sort or another. Most are edible and cultivated for food. Some of the species have very interesting flowers like caracalla which is the Corkscrew and Snail Vines. Angularis or Adzuki has been called the Yellow Snail Vine. It does have the corkscrew/snail turn in the flower but its not very noticeable like the two caracalla species and the flowers of the Angularis are very small.