On Gardeners Bloom Day last month, I wrote about mirabilis jalapa, the Four O'Clock plant. I said that the plants I'd grown from tubers were blooming, but that all they'd given me were either red or pink flowers - a bit disappointing given that the plant can have a variety of colours, the flowers can be bi-coloured, and that sometimes you'll even get two different colours on the same plant.
But I also had some others coming on which I'd started from seed, and they're now blooming. And lo and behold one of them is producing a mix of yellow and pink flowers, some of them with rather natty stripey sections.
As I was moving them around last week I clumsily broke off a large chunk of one of them. It was full of buds, so I thought I'd stick it in a jar of water to see if the flowers would open anyway. I then forgot about it till yesterday, only to find that within the week it had put out roots. This has to be the easiest plant in the world to propagate ...
10 comments:
This kind of information is always highly appreciated :) Thank you for posting,
Ewa
I then forgot about it till yesterday, only to find that within the week it had put out roots.
I love it when that happens. I snipped some basil last week and stuck it in a cup of water to keep it from wilting until I could use it. Of course I forgot about it, and when I checked on it a week later, it had roots. Voila! New plant.
Hands down the best part of gardening (at least IMO) is the up close and personal look you get at nature and how amazing it is.
I've grown some of these from seed and was wondering what they would look like
It is so great to find a way to get new plants quickly and easily.
Four o'clocks are easy to propagate and difficult to ever get rid of. Once those tubers take hold, they're almost impossible to eradicate. And they'll drop seeds everywhere.
But they do have a lovely scent.
Hi Sue!
I always look forward for a new post in your blog - so colorful! Are you referring to a stripe of yellow in that red flower? It actually looks beautiful to me though. I'm still trying to get those seeds here :(
Cool to hear about your mirabilis jalapa plants rooting so quickly. Wish I'd known that last week when I broke mine off.
I have the variety that has yellow-and-white stripes/splashes. A friend has the kind you have, with deep pink and yellow. I've also seen ones that have solid colors, but several colors on a bush. Maybe the ones you bought are like this?
All of mine are white so far this year...I wonder if they revert over the years??
It's nice, isn't it, when plats propagate that easily! And the flowers are beautiful - the stripes ones are so nice!
/Katarina
These are some of my favourite plants - the smell is just beautiful!
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