It really IS!
It kicks YKW!

Here is a shot of Cherry Cheesecake

I have buds on my Cherry Cheesecake! Hope to have pictures soon.

Hope you get a lot of blooms. This has been a blooming machine for a first year with me.

Rose1656 said:I have buds on my Cherry Cheesecake!

This being the first thing I looked at when I got home from a grocery run, I was momentarily confused!!!!


I hand pollinated another 3 Midnight Marvel blossoms on my way out to the store.

I checked Midnight Marvel for seed pods yesterday and......

My 'Jazzberry Jam' cutting rooted. I keep planting more and more of these.

ooooo - they work from cuttings, too?
I may just pave the yard with Midnight Marvel!!

Txtea, Pretty 'Cherry Cheesecake'!

I did get one seed pod from 'Midnight Marvel' that fully developed. The others aborted part way through development. There were about 30 seeds in it. I noticed a few seeds that were empty shells (no embryo/endosperm) but haven't inspected every seed. So it seems that it can set seeds, but has relatively low fertility which makes sense considering the hybrid hodge-podge of its genetics.

Fingers crossed for you, Critter!

Thank you.
I never thought about them stopping half way.

CAN ANYONE TELL ME how many seasons I should expect from seed to bloom?

Critter, I don't know about ex MM specifically but generally, if started early indoors hardy Hibiscus will often have a few flowers the first year. I would think you should get a few flowers by the second year at least. It might take a few years to get a really nice flowering, bushy plant, though. Early on they can look a little silly and out of proportion when they bloom (scrawny little plant with HUGE flowers!) I'm no expert on the subject, though, so maybe a more seasoned hardy Hibiscus grower will chime in.

That's encouraging!
I will have MM seeds next year (fingers crossed) but I already have some noid red flowered seedlings I started this year. Good to hear that if I get them in the ground before winter, they might show me what they look like this time next year!

Midnight Marvel is not a seed variety. It's not Midnight Marvel unless it's from a cutting. The plants might be similar but I wouldn't call it Midnight Marvel.

Thanks.
I got that info here, I think.
Should I wait until early next season to cut or would I possibly be ok to do it now and get it planted before fall?

I take cuttings after the blooms have all died on a stalk. I root mine in an EZ Clone machine. You should check out our discussions in the Propagation forum. After they root, I just store the potted dormant cuttings in my garage over winter. You could also take some cuttings in Spring too. They are very flexible.

OK.
I'm much further north, so it's good to know I can store them in the basement, dormant.

Yes, when I collect seeds from a cultivar I mark them, for example: ex 'Midnight Marvel'
"Ex" means "from" or "out of" so I know the seed came from the cultivar named afterwards.

Now, trying to get others (that I've given seed that I've collected from a certain cultivar) not to call the resulting seedlings by the cultivar's name has proven almost impossible. (usually a Salvia cultivar of some sort)

I like to say "Midnight Marvel x?"

Danita, thank you very much. I have a MM up from seeds that I started indoors back in Feb. It has not grown very much this year and I don't feel it is worth trying to start any more from seed next year. Out of maybe 30 seeds this is the only one to come up. ( Started the seed with Dr. Deno method. But I wish you all the luck in the world. As @clinbrown stated they do very well and grow well also with the EZ clone.