first attempt at growing hibiscus from seed

Oooops, sory, very sory about the mistaken identity Starlight. I don't remember what my Hibicus' name. I just assumed that it was a hybrid from White x Red species. Oh well, I'll have to see what comes up next.
:-)

here ya go. Almost missed it this morning wa s busy doign somethign else and the bud wasn't even halfway open yesterday.

This is the first bloom of the season and this is Luna White. The bloom is 8" across. I selfed it this morning, but then we got rain so not sure if the stigmatic fluid was ready or not, but got plenty of blooms to do.

First pic is bud yesterday.

this morning

close up.

nice shots & flower star

Ooooh!!!And in the pot too!!I know that is another to add to my wish list, that almost looks like it has a glase.Mike

Nice shot, Starlight! "I selfed it this morning..." Please clarify? I didn't understand.

Thanks Onewish. My camera skills are new and pretty losey. Anythign electrical or mechanical seems to stump me, so wa s glad it came out.

Mike. I will look around, I may still have a few seeds for this one, and will share it with ya. Got alot of stuff marked for you for a trade with ya in the fall.

I working on making lots of pods on the ones not marked for sale, so ther e will plenty of seed to share with everybody.

Lily Love. We are in short supply of bees and butterflies and hummers with the drought and funky weather we had. Those creatures would normally pollinate the flowers to make the seed.

To make sure I get seed amd to have it come out as close to the parent as can be, i take a qtip and go out and gather the pollen off of it and then hand pollinate it myself.

I look to make sure the pollen is fluffy, and then swirl the qtip all aroudn in it. When I pollinate it usually early in the morning, as we do have soem of them tiny bees that wil steal all the pollen and are so hungry they wont even wait for it to dry before they hog it up.

I dab the pollen on even if ther e is no fluid showing yet, that way once the stigmatic starts running I have abetter chance of getting a pod to set before the pollen dies and once the temps start hittign 80F her e nothign much wants to take.

I had plante d the seed last year and the first year seedlings were small and weak and it did bloom but the blooms were small. They said in a one gallon pot outside all winter with no protection to get there cold chil period. In the spring I cut the stalk back just about to the ground to promote the branching Lot s of seedlings don't get there groove on til the secodn year. next year when I cut them back they will have lot s of good branching and a really nic e form and really come into their element.

Starlight;
Thank you, for taking the time to explain/share the hand-polination technique. It's such a joy - to learn more about gardening for me. Our weather has been much difficult this year. Yes, I've noticed we've less bees, and more bugs unfortunately.
I've a 3-year guava, last year it gave me One isolate blossom. This year it yields roughly a dozen flowers. Should I try to hand polinate them? I'm hoping for some fruits this year.

Lily Love.. I sure would. To me to try is better than not trying and not having any seeds at all. You could do some to itself and on a coupel others criss cross em. Then take if ya got it a coupel of different colored tie twisties to mark wich ones you selfed and which ones you crossed.

Oh my Digitalis is looking decided happeier and now starting to grow. I ha d em in 8 inch pots, and they didn't look rootbound to me but gues the plant thought it was cuz it sure seems happier now. Thanks : )

Hi All,
How are things going? New gardening project? Mike, my pink Hibicus 1st bloom. The seedlings too are making flower buds at a very young age (a foot tall roughly). I'll see if I can post a pic.

Kim, thats lovely, hope you can spare a couple, however this is a bad time to transplant.
Saw a propagation situation, that I wish I had thaught of.You know how we cut the bottom out of a 2liter bottle, and put the top part over to make a dome.An autistic(sp), friend of mine loves plants, and takes cuttings, and gives to others, he can root anything, and how, I'll never know.Well, instead of cutting out the bottom, he puts the cutting in a clay pot, and cuts the top off, and pushes it down over the cutting, and really has a humidome.I told him I'm going to start using his idea.Mike

Mike,
You aren't kidding about "bad time to transplant", that is what I try to tell folks. But I went against my judgement, and dug up one for you. Potted Tuesday. And oooh, it wilted big time. I've trying to mist it and provide artificial humidity to keep it from dying. Any hoo, one way or the other. That baby pink hib. (an offspring ~ thus don't know if it's gonna be pink or nort), is coming to you on Monday. If you can't revive it. In the fall, perhaps, I can send you some dormant plants?
Mike, artificial domes for propagation is cool. Now us gardeners can recycle those platic bottles in many different ways. I was thinking about using those 2-litter bottles to mail out live-plants.

Thats an idea! Hope the pink makes it, but...! Thanks anyway.Mike

LilyLove... Your hibiscus is really beautiful. : ) Love the form on it. Don't think I have seen one quite that color before. LOL. your babies just can't wait to say se e me mom! : )

Mike... What a nifty idea!!!!!! Thanks for sharing it. That will be something new to try on that that one plant that you want to propagate some more of so bad and nothign you try will work.

Hi everyone,
Guess what? My guess was accurate. My pink Hib.'s offspring (1 for now), is showing a tiny bit of WHITE petal, like that of Startlight's post above. In the AM, it should be fully open, I hope. Will post a pic. then.

I'll be busy packaging stuffs to send out to DGers tomorrow. My DH is extending our irrigation system, I asked if I could add some misting device connect to the pvc pipe. This is where, perhaps, Starlight could help? Starlight, if it's not too much trouble; could you please give us some advice?
Oh, BTW, Mike, the hib. didn't seem very turgid as of this afternoon. Have you has experience with growing Sweet Autumn Clematis? (This is very vigorous vine, some say it's invasive), I can send you one, since it's tough and perhaps survive the transit better than the hib. would. PLMK

Lily Love... Cool. Can't wait to se e your pic. I been hybridizing the Luan white . Had four bloosm open today and already have two pods forming from the other day. So wil plenty of see d for everybody.

Funny.. you mentionthat cuz whiel huntign for the title of a car for the junk yard I came across the directions to the mister set-up that I had glue d in one of my jornouls. I'll take it up and get it photocopie d to send to ya. I am not the best at tryign to explain the in's and otu of building things. If I had my way, I would just hook evrythign I wante d built together with duck tape. LOL If your addy's nto in the exchange, then dm it to me.

My timing is off a little bit, the white offsprings didn't open this AM, tat too soon. But here they're....

I just planted another 9-pk of White Texas Star this afternoon.
:~)

Hi Smockette;
Best of luck with the project. Looking forward to see your result, please post pic. to share.
FYI; my pink hib. offsprings apparently are two different color. Surprisingly so, one came true to its parent; It's a girl! (pink). It looks identical to that of the parent. Then I've a cluster of white. Starlight, it appears though, one seedpods bears whites, the other yield pink. So one was self-polinated? The other was crossed? (leave it up to the bees, lol).

Lily Love.... Lookign good there. : ) What amazes me about hibiscus is that they really have such a little bud for such a huge flowers and how they giv eya a tiny tease with the edge of their bloom and then wham! ther e they open in all their glory.

Mother Nature amazing that it can pack such perefctly formed huge blooms into such a tiny package. Can you just imagine how borign lif e would be if we didn't have all thes e little sublitlies to look at in plants , to wonder, and puzzle over and appreciate.

Smockette... Aggggggggggggg your making me jealous. heheheh : ) You got it going on for sure. Hope every one of them germinates for ya.

Managed to get a clump shot this morning. Ignore the blue sheet hanging up above it. When the temps up to 100F and yoru ina major drought, I take a coupel of fence posts just stuff em in the dirt and then hang sheets up above on the corners with the fence cap on to hold the sheet. Shade s the plants and keeps them cool and from being stressed. Ran out of shade cloth and 50 cent sheets from the thrift store work almost better and whoel lot s cheaper than shade cloth.

Lily Love... Of f hand without being there would probably say yes. The only real way to make sure the bees haven't dumped pollen grains you can't se e for sur e or maybe have abee come behidn you and yoru pollen not take and their's does it to go out mor e or les s and baby sit the bloom while it opening and gather the pollen yourself, dabit on the plant, then remove all the anthers and filaments and then take a straw cut it to about 3/4" put a piece of liek black electrical tape over the end of it and place it over the top of style, coverign up the stigma so nothign else can get in there and pollinate it. Ya like giving it a rain coat. It is a lot of work and very time consuming. More fun to se e what surprise s ya get. : )

I love the sheet idea, Ella, and I guess that is cheeper, than shade cloth, and larger too, I think.You can prop up a small post, and take some long nails, and put 2 to the corner, and strech them with string, in place of digging.Mike

Starlight, whew! That's a handful of steps to follow trough. lol. But thank you, I'll store that in my data-bank, whatever space were left. lol

Mike, you've snail mail coming. The p/o stated that it would take 2-3 days. For each DGer that I sent out C.V. this morning. I included one vine that was rooted (by me, last year). Good lucks, keep me posted.
My white hib. still haven't bloomed yet. They're in a semishade area, slow to develop, but the blosoms appears to last longer. Will post some pics. then.

Thanks Mike for the nails and string idea. Using sheets is a whole lot cheaper. I try to get the full, king or king size sheets and I it don'tmatter if they light blue green white or pink, or patterned. I just stay away from the dark colors. One sheet usually isn't long enough so I just tie the corners of sheets together and string them all together. I usually don't tie mroe than three sheets together or it gets to heavy when it rains, but durign that time I usually take the sheets down . Don't wanna chanc e them getting to heavy and breaking branches.

I have a friend in town whoses whoel backyard is just about all covere d in sheets. Him and his wife growers and it keeps all ther e cuttings and seedling s from burning up in the sun. That where I got the idea from. Anythign that save s the plants and helps them grow I am all for.

Starlight,
have you checked your d-mail?

Sorry. nope but have now and looks liek I got mail : )

'morning!
Here is my pink's hib's offspring, the "boy" lol.
Also Ella; I've poppies seeds for you for your green-project. Ever grown Formosian Lilies? I've some seeds to share as well.
Kim

Oh!!! Ahhh!!! (Slightly drulling fr Tx) lol

Beautimus!!!

Thnx, Smockette;
Yours will come up in no time, I'm sure. I went out and dead headed a few spent blooms this AM, but will save some later in the season for seeds, I'll have plenty to share come the falls. Have you experienced any drought this year like we've? It's terrible, most of my neighboring gardening dried up terribly. Some have to save "gray water" to water their yard. Our local nursery even putting out their perrenial bedding plants for sale on half price. (None of the Hib. that I've noticed).
Kim

I have the EXACT opposite problem! New neighbors next door built their new house & road (that lines my propertyline) UP about a foot & now the whole south side of my house is standing in water & has 5mos out of 6 mos this yr. I am furious!!!!!!!!!
& with all the rain, it is just standing 2-3 landscape timbers deep.
I mean a huge area! Say, 20' x 50' & 3-6 inches deep. Can't sleep @ nite for all the frogs & their loud chorus. They start b4 dark & go all nite long.
Have a friend in Chipley, FL & everytime she calls, it is raining here. She says, 'BLOW! Blow it our way!' lol Wish I could.
Can't dig a retainage pond til it drys up some!

Yes, do send the rain our way. I wish if there would be a balance there. I've dogwoods that's are dying it seems. 1st time, it's soooo sooo bad. These are 15-20 years old dogwoods easily. Hope you'll get some relieve soon, same here for many of us in SE.

I will NEVER complane about the weather again, and will be ever grateful for what God gives us.We are sooo dry, that The man I saw hand digging a grave, said it was dry 6' down.Thats dry!!We have been saving "grey" water now for about a mounth, and if not for that, I would have lost some plants, because we have a bored well, and refuse to chance it.People in this county have had a lot of dry wells, and I don't think I'm ready for that.L_L, that is a "beautimus" hib, and with just a hint of pink,like that.I am going to plant my seedlings, of white Tx star, after this hot spell is over, they are growing so good, and who knows, might even get a bloom this Yr., and am looking foward to it.Mike

Just found out that my deer love Tx Star Hib.
The brave things came up on my deck, stripped every leaf off one of them. They never break the stems on whatever they eat! Guess that is so they can come back in a month & strip it again!
I didn't say deer are dumb! lol

They're not dumb, they just don't enough good senses like teenagers. lol, lol. Hey guess what? It's thundering and lightening outside! I hope it will rain, rain glorious rain.!!!!

I would do a rain dance for you but it is thundering here also.
As Chipley says, 'BLOW', so I'm blowing to the East!
lol :~)

Smockette;
...and it works! I've a gloririous 45+ mins. rains. The soil saturated, but there were many trees blown over, and big broken branches. Oooops. Next time "BLOW" a little more gentle. lol

Texas saying...Come big or stay home. Guess I came with a big blow. Sorry, I blew so hard! lol Didn't mean to take down trees!!!
So glad you got some of what I have had enough of.
Had a new customer come to the Farm today. He had 'Irrigation' on his truck. Got his business card. He said just call & ask for an estimate & tell them Victor referred me.
I want estimates on my drainage/flooding problem/corrections. I'm going to show the bill to my neighbors & ask for half since it is their fault that my south side is standing in water!!!
What do you think they will say???

Morning Folks!
Lily Love.... Your seedling is beautiful!!!!!!! Looks like it might have a touch of blush to it? Could just be the camera shadow. Looks like your ready to bust out with alot of blooms there. : ) Did you happen to measure the siz e of your seedlign bloom? Looks like it might be about 10" from my monitor.

Thanks wil appreciate the poppy and formosian seeds. never grown formosian before, would need directions with them please as to how you grow yours.

The drought is really bad here. It terrible your out workign i the heat and sweat is pouring of f you like there's no tomorrow and the next thing I know I am taking my drinking bottle of water and giving sips to some plants as I am scouting. it like they sens e that bottle of water and start waving their little leave s liek crazy yelling me..me.. me.

Smockette... I feel ba d for you. I don't knwo if your are a in Texas has rule s or not, but I know that you cannot change the lay of the lad here if it wil caus e flooding on somebody elses property. You should not have to try and pay for improvemnts to stop it not for the eventually damge that wil be done to your house. Get ya some pics and have your neighbor s or city come out and make the changes. Eventually that water will weaken your foundation .

Ther e were several of us that problems with a person who decide d to move his dirt aroudn and he redirecte d it so that not a drop of water would go on his property, instea d he flooded thre e of us out. he wa s not happy when confronte d with what he did and trie d to say he kne w this person and that person and he was gona do what he wanted. I am a very laid back person but enough was enough and after threatenign him with lawsuits and damage s for r eplacement s of plants, trees and property he got back out there and undid the damage.

You can " blow" some of that rain this way. I've listened past thre e days of thunder and watche d the clouds turn black and move right on out of the area and dump rain on the neighboring communities. They say more scattered showers just hope it scatter s her e but not countign on it. Went almost 4months straight last year with not a drop of rain and temps over 100F.

Mike... I know what ya mean. There some folks out here who's well are dryign up big time and trees that have become so stressed that they are dying. Most of my hickory and oak nut s have all but droppe d and the pecans are doing the same. That ok would rather los e the nut s than the trees. There no way to replace 200+ year old oaks .

I don't doubt what that graveyard man said. I dug a hole the other day and went thre e feet down and it was bone dry, and with having alot of sand the moisture totally gone. The only way I am able to even keep thinsg going is by not mowing. I look like a giant wild jungle of gras s and weeds , but it helps to keep some moisture from condensation going . When yoru out in woods and no fir e department around the yard may look like heck but at least it can slow a wildfire down.

I been moving everythign I can on pallets and puttign under shade trees and sheets. Don't care what it looks like. My plants come befor e anything.

Smockette.. Just happene d to think. A friend in Canada had major problems with deer and she took some pie pans and put colore d ribbons on them and tied them to her her wheelbarrel handles wher e the ewere munching. it kept the deer away and evry few days she would move the wheelbarell a short little feet away from her flowers and it kept them away. Ya might giv e that a try. Couldn't hurt.