OK, I'm BEGGING for seeds :-)

Would anyone be willing to send some hardy Hibiscus seeds for SASE? I have fallen in love with them since moving here to TN last year. The only one I have to offer any seeds is Hibiscus moscheutos 'Luna Pink Swirl'. Happy to exchange or will send SASE. We have had the most awful gardening weather this summer and it hasn't rained an inch in two months of very warm weather. In fact, weather just about all this year has been a gardener's nightmare ... everything that can go wrong has ... late ice storm, several late frosts, hail, 50-year flood in May, unusally hot summer with hardly any rain. Do you have pity for me yet? LOL. My Hib is a more common cultivar but I'm happy to trade seeds or will just send a SASE. It soldiered on through all the wild weather this year and gave me gorgeous 8-9" blooms. I can't get a pick ax in the ground at the moment so I'm going to try growing from seed for next year.



This message was edited Oct 3, 2010 6:15 AM

Cville I have several types of Hardy Hibiscus seeds....you can send me a SASE...Dmail me for my address and a list of what I have.

DMDreamer:
Would you have enough to share with others? I would love to add to my collection of one Hardy Hib.

Sure Peg, just Dmail me!

Thank you, Karen. I just Dmailed you. Much appreciated!!! Aren't DGers the best?? :-)

Hello - I have some pure white Hardy Hibiscus seeds that I can share with you. It is an abundant bloomer and about 4 years old.
Gail

Thank you -- I've Dmailed. :-)

Wish I had some seeds also. My attempts to pollinate didn't work, but there is always next year.

Will be interested to hear how it goes, peg.

PlantsforPeg - I just sent you a dmail for seeds. I am sorry about your pollinating efforts. I wouldn't even know how to do that - so i let the bees do it. ha.

Here is my white Hibiscus.

heres how i do it

in case yo cant read it it says

Take pollen off one flower from here using a q-tip or
paint brush. You have to do this when the flower first
opens as the flower ages the pollen will dry up

Now place the pollen on this part of a different flower
you have to do this early in the day before the bees get to it..

jen

gail your white hibs are beautiful

I looked at the close up of my garden behind. Yuck! It was a construction zone last year! That was last year when I dug up all my grass (I hate grass) and was in the middle redoing my hill in all hydrangeas. My neighbors are redoing their yard now because of my gardens. ha So now they are in the middle of construction. I bought a sod cutter and do it all myself. Hard work and very rewarding. I really like this gardening habit (addiction).

Thank you for the pollinating info! I have Qtips and energy. Sounds interesting. Next maybe I can fiddle with nature. My copper king has no pods as you suspected. My fireball may be getting pods because when I plucked the spent bloom this morning there is the beginnings of a pod there.

we have lived in our home almost 3 years now.. Both springs we ordered 5 yards of dirt and put in new gardens, my back yard garden side is 30' by 80' the garden goes along the fenced yard in a C shape.. Next year we wanted to move the fence another 20 feet forward to make the garden side 30 by 100' but were not sure if thats something we want to do, since we will be moving in less then 4 years..
So i know what its like to be under construction, we never dug up all our grass but the little bit we took out, was alot of work..

As I am harvesting the pods I am noticing different levels of 'dryness' of the pods. There are pods that are huge but still have blotches of green to them. Would the seeds be 'ready' in the green blotchy pods? There are other bone-dry brown pods. Do I only take the seeds from the bone dry pods? And should I not remove pods from the mother plant if they are not bone dry? sorry for all the questions but I want to give you only viable seeds.

i think as long the seeds arnt white they would be fine..

Probably would be okay just as long as the seeds aren't light colored, as said, and are nice and dry. Otherwise they are going to go moldy.

Oh good! No light colored seed are happening inside the pods at all. We have been experiencing great warm weather here. I am in my shorts and light top today. No parka gardening yet. yay!

This message was edited Oct 8, 2010 11:26 AM

When they pop wide open on their own to expose the dark seeds, you know for sure that they are "ready".

Ok good that makes sense. The dark, dried up pods were split open and those were the seeds I harvested.

This will be interesting ... and fun to have hibiscus that originated in other people's yards across the country growing here ... from TX to TN to MN.

all made possible via DG! pretty good stuff.

I agree. :-)

Well, you all are just having fun while I was away for the weekend.
I thought MN would be too cold in October for Hibs to bloom.
My only Hib usually blooms one flower a day. Once in a while I will get 2 or 3 in the same day.
Guess I am not feeding it enough. It gets water often so I don't think watering would be a problem.
Hummmmmm. That is why I continue to watch the forums....so I learn more and more each day.
Keep it up girls!!!!

Hi peg ... I don't water mine very much and we have had 90+ degrees for almost 3 months this year ... so perhaps yours is getting a tad too much water? I don't know ... just asking.

We have had strange but great weather for October. 70s and 80s this week. Like Carole, I really don't water the hibiscus too much - I am pretty regular about watering my hydrangeas but I don't really baby the hibiscus like that. I mulch them to retain moisture, etc. I fertilize in the spring with Osmocote. That's about it.

I water pretty often in july cause this year was really dry.. Could of used more water in Aug but i had a baby aug 1 so that wasn't in the cards... I gave them miracle grow a few times but thats pretty much all i did.. I got tones of flowers all year but now theres only the odd one left.. 4 of my plants were started this year and they did just great with flowers, i was surprised that they even flowered, never though it would there first year.. They did some even seeded too..
jen

They are pretty tough little cookies that can take a wide variety of conditions. My soil has a lot of clay but drains well. And we have a lot of humidity. I got lots of blooms also.

I have one in a pot that is not a hardy that I had been watering often. Think it's worth a try to cut back on watering and mulch. It is twigs only and no leaves. Bummer!

The non-hardy hisbiscus like the one in your pot are true tropical plants and they usually love lots of moisture. The hardy ones, not so much. At least that has been my experience with them.

i have given up on the tropical ones.. i had 3 the first year i lived here and last year i got 4 more, all 7 died during the winters, i just dont know if it was lack of sunlight or water issues.. but at $20 a plant, thats it for me... The hardies ate just as nice with HUGE flowers i can see from anywhere in my yard.. just wish they came in orange or bright yellow.. I do have a red texas star (last years died outside so there not hardy for me) that i will bring in and store in the basement so see if it will come back next year.. still waiting for a flower, these from my experience dont flower first year.. But if they dont work out stored this year, i'm done with them also... I have plenty of tropicals (calla, canna and elephant ears) but i can only seem to handle the ones that go dormant over the winter.. Maybe my next house i'll buy one with better windows for plants lol..

I know, huh, wish they came in orange and yellow too. I hear you about keeping on with them. Can get expensive, for sure. Love EEs so glad you have success with those. What zone are you, smurf? LOL about the window. Here's the thing ... I have big north/northwest facing window in the living room and the floor and area in front of it is beginning to fill up with the plants coming in to over-winter. LOL.

See thats what i want we had 2 5' palm trees (cabbage palms) a 2' yucca cane, a 2' dumbcane, 2 4' brugmansia, and 2 18" hibiscus' all in my living room last winter and all we ok till about the end of feb by the end of march they were all dead, well except the brugmansia but they went dormant and were just sticks that i was watering in the basement by that time...

It depends on what site i look at most i'm 6b, the odd few i'm 6a.. I have the regular EE's for a few years and they store in the basement along with my cannas very well.. last winter i bought black magic, black runner, big diapper, upright, sting ray, and variegata.. They did fine in the window as they dont need full sun.. The leaves had really long skiny stems ans had a hard time holding up the leaves so when spring came and it was time to put them outside i just cut off all the leaves and the first few new ones burned but after that they did great.. I'm scared now to let them go dormant so i think i'll keep them in my bedroom and living room to keep them going..

Being that i'm in 6b i plant them in full sun, well its full afternoon sun.. they do great there

That's quite a LR garden. LOL. Right now sitting in front of my LR window I have a tall Beaucarnea recurvata, several Euphorbias including a 3' one, and the little avocado tree I grew from a pit this year, plus some misc. stuff. I haven't yet brought in the 3' yucca cane from the deck but will in a week or so. All are kinda space hogs.

I'm zone 6b/7a. I have a few EE bulbs in the basement over-wintering, a couple in pots, and the ones in the ground will remain there with a heavy layer of mulch over them. A lot of folks here do that with their EE bulbs ... just leave them in the ground year around. Hopefully, these will be okay. Next year I will set our my 'Royal Hawaiian' bulbs and my 'Thailand giant' plants.

Do you think those plants you had indoors died from lack of adequate light or ?

ya i think so, didn't matter how much or little water i gave them they just kept dieing

darkmoondreamer and Gkayfes -- I received my envelopes of seeds just now in the mail. Thank you both so much for being so generous. It will be such fun to have some of your hibiscus growing in my yard. Aren't DGer's the best?!! :-)

I got several varieties of hardy hibiscus seeds last fall/winter from swaps on this site - the unusual seed swap and the piggy swap. My plants weren't big enough to flower, but they are growing well. The seeds wintersowed well. If you join either or both swaps, I am sure people there will have some seeds.

I was excited to read that hardy hibiscus tolerates black walnut trees/juglone. I am looking forward for their blooms next year.