first attempt at growing hibiscus from seed

Lily_love, do you ever check your d-mail??Mike

Mike, pardon my laziness, lol. yes, yes, I've. chuckles! grins! and agree with you all the way. lol.

Mike... God is good andI am Blessed. I have been almost two month swithotu wheels now, but He works in His time and will always provide if ya just have patience. It has been rough, but not an impossible situation. Got plenty of work to do in the yard and durign this time have foudn some things I didn't even know I ha d growing and also I usally so busy runnign her e and ther e it ha s given me time to stop and sit outsid e and sit back and reflect and the body and mind while filling the soul. Every so often it good for Him to stop and humble us. We all need it.

He brought me a car about a week and a half ago. One of my friends here bought this car as an extra. But his wife not in the best of health and really shouldn't be driving alone and it neede d work so they gave back. The woman they gave it back too, stil ha d it so I bought it. She gave me a good deal on it. One I could afford. My suburua was a '84 and this car a '91. I movign up in the world. LOL

It needs somethign calle d a starter celninoid put into it and to get to it the exhaust somethign or other has to come off. A friend who coudl work on it his wif e when into hospital with emergency appendeciatmy and some othe r problems and been busy helping watch his two children.

Got the car and neede d the part put on. So today I rea d your prayer. Thank you for it. Adde d mine to it and made a phone call to another friend from the church and with God's Blessing hopefully this person will have my part and the car runnign by Saturday which is the soonest he can get to it. God doe s answer prayers. Thank you Jesus!

Kim... Hopefully will have your directions finished drawed by tommorrow and in the mail. Thanks for the hibiscus seed heads up. Don't want to los e any of these they nee d to be shared.

T hat is such a sweet attitude, and we all need to reflect on the positive, and let the negitive go.I think we would all find something valuable in our work, and love of the land we are stewards over, I know I have, and to me it is pay enough.I took up with a feral cat that took up residents here, and found mutual love.She was eaten up with fleas, and very hungry, not to mention smelly, but after we got use to each other, and had a good meal, we had a trip to the vet, and now we are looking farely pretty, and a real pal.I would have a hard time parting.She plays while I turn the compost, and follows me all over the yard.Never thaught I could love a cat, but this is no ordinary cat.Mike

Mike,
Congrats on being the proud adoptive parent of your new cat. Has she have a name? Hibiscus? :-)

Thanks Kim, yes she has a name, and I used it for reference when I tried to shoo her off.She didn't act normal, and would take three steps, and come back toward me, so I referred to her as "Paxil", for the drug, and the vet needed a name, and that was it. Mike

Hi all, so far the Azaleas look quite perky. I don't want to "chink" 'em by praising them too early. With the 90% humidity and all, with a little added help from the mister I hope they make it.

Thanks Ella for answering my question on my plant haven't been on here cause been in bed under 3 blankets fighting the summer flu I guess as if the computer acting stupid wasn't enough lol!! Somewhere amoung my mess I have the name of the HIB and hopefully will be able to fine but have 2 I have started to root will have to try and get a full size picture for you Mike maybe you can help out with a name. Does anyone on here have a picture of the white i am dying to see this baby in a picture !! And I have a confederate rooted also guess send to Ella if she sending you one . Mine have just started to bloom but with this drought they are crying. Missed last to blooms but waiting on her to struct her stuff. As they always do. Will try and get a picture for yall.
Carolyn

Oh my..... I laughe d my head off silly this morning. Sorry Mike, but I can just imagine ya yelling, " Paxil! Anybody seen my Paxil this morning." That so cute. : ) You must be a very special person, cuz I have heard many times, that when it comes to cats, people don't pick them out, that the cats pick who gonna be their master. You new buddy picke d you, so you should feel honored.

I had a surprise this morning when I went out and checked, the plants. Two of the Luna white pods had turned brown like ya said Kim and the tops was just starting to open. Opened them up and was surprised to find two different sizes of seeds. Pod number two is definately bigger than pod number one. Some of these were selfed and some were criss=crossed with other Luna white blooms. Wish now that I would have marke d which was which. Dah... Gonna be interesting to see what kind of seedlings emerge.

Got them sittign on the table drying and then will give a quick dip in some hydrogen peroxide and send ya off some of both of thes e seeds. If ya get started in some trays in doors and in a baggie they should come up really fast and be big enough to hold over the winter.

I also took the pink one and selfed it and then also put soem of it's pollen on a Luna white. Another thing I noticed was that the Luna white had 4 places with stigmatic fluid on it to put pollen and the Pink has 5. So I hoping that maybe they will take. That one I at least remembered to tag.

I have tried twice to get that red and cream Moonlight Delight one to try and make a pod with itself and so far it not takign at all. I don't know if the pollen sterile or I just doing somethign wrong????

I'd post a pic of the pods dryign and seeds, but I have havign some sort of technical dificultie s with Dave's. If I click on somebody's pic to enlarge I get a black screen in the background with the thread faintly showing and some sort of loadign bar going acros s it. Got to find out where the place to ask the admits about it. Just starte d last night after I clicked on somebodys pic on a new post. grrrrrrrrrrrr

if I click on somebody's name to send Dmail I get another weird screen come on top of the thread but it in white and shows the computer lingo . dbl grrrrrrr and I am too computer illiterate to figure out what going on.

Ella, DG has some brief technical issue with what you just described. But it seemed that they've resolved the problem....
Keep us posted as to how the selfed progresses.

Ella, when I read your thread yesterday, I was so tickled LOL, that I wasn't able to respond to the name "paxil", but the name sure fits her.The vet says they think she is 8-10 Yrs. old, but she acts like a scared little kitten.She followes me like a dog, and comes running to me when she is frightened.I don't know how your suposed to treat a cat, but when she is frighten, I'll pick her up, and go see the problem, and usually it is a visiting cat, that chased her away from her food, and she knows who will fix them.No dog has ever been more loyal than Paxil.
My lady baltimore will be in bloom tomorrow, they have swelling buds, and I wasn't expecting them to bloom the first Yr.I'll take a pic tomorrow.
Carolyn, sorry you had the summer time blues, but hope your over it.The idea of the kiddy pool for a plant waterer is a good idea, and saves water.I put the plants in and they drink, and then I have this old refergerator shelf, that sits on top to let the excess water run off.I can't get over how much we learn on DG.

Thanks for the seed Mike. I got them a couple of days ago. I will sow them in a planter till they are ready to put in the garden. I can't wait to have them!!!! They are just beautiful!
Janet

"Thanks for the seed Mike. I got them a couple of days ago."

I have made up envelopes w/RTxS, & your DG name. I shall pass them out tomorrow @ the 'July 21 Hou Plant Swap'. (ck Texas Gardening Forum).

I think they will go nicely alternating w/the White! Grant me patience!!!
:~)

Smockett and Janet if you want some of these hybridized Luna White seeds please send me your addies.

Kim and Mike I already have yours ready to go out and Kim your directions will be in the envelope with yours.

I have collecte d four pods so far and am sending everybody some seed from each of the pods. There will be some Luna White germinate and also will be some blush and maybe even a new cultivar from the recessiv e genes. They gonna be surprises. : )

Mike..... Somewhere about this time next month I will be headign to Newnan , Ga. with some friends wher e we going over to that place that has the muscadine vine s and fruit trees. jerald and his wife want to grow some more fruit trees and I know the tree s up there are ood. Will send ya a dmail later. Maybe if yoru fre e when we go up we can meet around Monticello or someplace that has coffee, got to have my coffee. : ) and I can pass to you all the stuff I got for you if yoru abel. If not then I will send them out to ya next month in the mail. The worst of the heat wil be over by then and a good tiem to move plants.

If ya will add Caroyln to your prayer list. She is on breathign treatments evry 4 hours and if not better will be going into the hospital on Tuesday. She also losing weight she can't afford at an alarming rate. Soon a gust of wind wil be blowing her away. She has alot of health issues which are affecting her and her ability to garden and enjoy her flowers. She always busy praying and helpng everybody else and never asks for herself, so I asking on her behalf.

I am of the conclusion that the only way to proagate the red and cream is by cuttings. Have pollinated bloom after bloom, selfed and crossed and all the blooms just fall of f befoe developing a pod. Looks liek it gonna be rootign time for that one.

I tried a reverse and put Luna on the pink yesterday , but then we got a wild thunderstorm wind and a few minute s of heavy rain and the blooms all on the ground this morning so not sure if the pollen took and had time to reach down into the ovaries or not. Keepign my finger s crosse d on that one.

If ya got a few minutes to sit and read ... her e my adventures and new pet that arrive d yesterday. LOL Ya wanna trade Mike. Hahahahahahah

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/750899/

Sorry Ella, but thats not good news.They like to dig, but not where you do, and they like worms, as good as me, but for the another reason.Also, I have been told that they are carriers of leprosy, so I wouldn't handle him, but it was an interesting find.Mike

Mike, Ella;
I and next door neighbor found on our property. See my thread on "June's bloom" in MidSouth Forum. I'm setting trap out for this armadillo. 2nd day now, no sight of lucks yet. Neighbor too, is keeping an eye out for the trap as we do.
Hey Mike, guess what I've sprouted in my yard? A Catalpa tree! 1st impression I thought it may be the notorious Empress tree (though, its flowers are so pretty -- I'm hooked to any type of tubular flowers if you haven't noticed). Any how, this Catalpa tree is about 5 feet tall. I just noticed a low growing lateral branch off the base. I thought of you, do you fish? I can try to air-layer this branch for you and see it'll take?
Ella, thank you, thank you. I'll be looking out for my friendly mail person, hopefully it will get here Monday? At the meantime, I'm watering my cuttings to death. The ground is so wet, I may invite fungal growth for my surrounding area. Yikes!

Kim,Thank you for the offer, but my son-in-law has a row of them in his yard, and when the catalpa worms come, my DW won't go there, so I'll decline.Never thaught of the tubular flowers, but I guess it does.BTW, their is such a thing as too much moister, unless it is in a moving water situation, ie. sandy creek bottom, where the moister flowes with the creek.I don't have one, but wish I did.
Ella, let me think this over, I would love to have coffee with you, and get a face with your personality.We have an old dog, that gets seasures, and we try to never leave her long, so this has a bearing.Told you all about the lady baltimore, well I took some pics, and DW doesn't want me to show her, but I'm not puter savy enough. Mike

Very pretty! The Lady Baltimore ain't bad either.

I second what Janet said. : ) Looks like you have the rarest and prettiest bloom right there in your garden and your life. : ) You have a very pretty wife.

Your Lady Baltmore is awful pretty too. Now does it make seed, or is it one you can only propagate by cuttings?

I fully understand about your dog. It not been maybe about a month since I just lost my companion of 18 years and while I have another dog to take care that I have had for almost 14 years it just not the same. My baby can't travel. LOL He gets car sick .

Been looking all afternoon for my visitor and gues s he got what he came for and and has move d on cuz I can't find him anywhere and the dog not going crazy. Maybe he just needed a place to take a nap and rest . If anythign I figure d he would tear up my Daylily beds as of just weedign them and fresh ground and earth showing, but nope. I don't know abotu the leporasy, but I to much of a whimp to try and touch something like that.

Kim... I'd probably say tuesday or wed. Didn't get out until todays mail. Had to fill out oen of them postal service cards to get some stamps delivered and wait for them to arrive.

I forgot to send my addy...(didn't realize everyone could see this, so I deleted it. Thanks for pointing that out!) Have a beautiful Sunday everyone!

This message was edited Jul 22, 2007 8:45 AM

Mike, I like the garden setting. Always impartial to big boulders. They do make a statement in a garden setting. Once we were at a house that has a great big boulder. DH tried to find all sort of ways to have it removed. Not so, I said. I made it into a rock garden. When we sold the old house. Only then I wished we could have move it. lol
Kim

Thank all of you for the sweet words about my DW, she is a true help meet for me, and I love her more each day.I'm not giving her credit for starting those "lady baltimore" though!That was ME.
Kim, there is a story behind those rocks, BTW thank you for the notice, and no, they aren't from my place,I hauled them in.I too like to landscape with rocks, and dead wood, when it has character.
I'm not sure, but I think lady baltimore does set seed, I'll know later.Mike

Mike you may see this 2 times my computer acting stupid as usual , but you have an awesome wife and she the jewel of your flowers and they smile upon her and wanted to tell you that the lady baltimore do go to seed . Mine did last year but afraid from the drought they may not make seed this year . but will not give up hope !!
Have a Great Day!!
Carolyn

Thank you Carolyn, I pray that you are better, and over that flue.Bad time of the year to go through that.Do hope you can enjoy the rest of the summer weather.Thank you for the wonderful complements on my DW, who has what it takes to be married to a man like me.She never ask for much, and is always happy.
So glad to know about the lady baltimore, and look foward to colecting seeds, do we have to self them, I was going to try to find out?I looked, and they look very easy to self, or cross, but I don't think I could improve on them.I never had hibiscus until about 5 Yrs. ago, and a lady gave me the 6 mother TR, that are getting larger every Yr., in the clump.I guess I'll need to devide them sometime, but can wait on that.The ones the lady planted were by her mail box, and they paved over some of them, and they came up through it the next summer.Who would think?they sure are hardy.Mike

Snail mail has arrived! Ella! Thank you so very much. I'm spechless, words can't describe my gratitude.
I can sit here and jaber on and on, but ... you just imagine how happy I'm. Which you can't. So let me say. Thank you, one more time.
Kim

Mike... Your best bet would be to hand pollinate your blooms. One thing I have notice d is bee pods usually abort. The bees don't get the pollen on all the pads. If every pad does not have pollen on it , it wil not form the pollen tubes and make seed.

I have also foudn out that going out about 10 am when it is warm but nto too too hot is the best tiem to collect the pollen and make the crosses.

here a couple of links about hybridizing with hibiscus that are interesting . and the then the main link with some storyie s other hibiscus hybridizers have wrote.

http://www.trop-hibiscus.com/hibseed.html

http://www.internationalhibiscussociety.org/hiv1n3-2.htm#8

it is alot easier to remove the pollen and carry it aroudn and dab with it, but stil keep a piece of paper under it while your cutting or carrying it around. That way when pollen drops on the paper you can tip the pad in the paper to coat it.

Kim.... Glad it made it ok. You can make them hoophouse beds and the beds themself real cheap and usually I find all the boards and such from what people throwing out and walmart has the cheapest plastic. Usually one of their package s is mor e than plenty to put a double top on , just ake sure ya use 6mil thicknes s or the plastic rips to easy. When your making yoour pvc cuts make sure they cut straight across. The first one I did I tried to cut the pvc with an old hand saw and it came out crooked in tryign to saw threw and when I glue d the parts togther they sat crooked and then sprinkled crooked. LOL

Hopefully Mikes and Judy's seed arrive today. Still need your addy smockette and will get your s out then. : )

Thank you Ella, I had snail mail too.Thank you so much, and it is good to know how to polinate the lady baltimores.Will start in the morning.I won't have many, because it a first year plant.Mike

The baby texas stars are growing good, and I am going to take a chance and plant them as soon as the weather goes from hot to a little less hot, and I do hope they are strong enough to survive the change from pot to ground, but my feelings are they can take it.
here are the white texas star in the harden off spot, and my forever friend in the middle of it all.Mike

They are looking good Mike!

Looks like your green thumbs are doign real good there!!!! : ) They looking nice and healthy. Your Paxil is a cutey too : ) Paxil looks like she out on some serious plant patrol and checkign to make sure the coast is clear for you. LOL : )

I'll be glad when we get some rain and only a few more weeks an hopefully some cooler weather will come in and hang aroudn for a bit.

We got a little rain tonight...not much but it rained pretty hard for about ten or fifteen minutes!

Glad you got some. I'm still drier than dust, but praying we get something , if even a few drops today.

When I sent seeds to you all, I started some of the hybridized Luna White seeds myself. I starte d them in little 1" x1" cut up sections of a seed tray in Fafard seed starting mix and had put in plastic baggy for days and on kitchen table under 24 light bulb which is above light above table. They hadn't germinated so, took out of baggy cuz after days chances of mold start getting great.

I took them out of baggy, miste d them good and then put under seed starting stand and lamps where lights only couple inche s above and been keeping misted thre e times a day and they finally started germinating yesterday, can see wher e their radicles are emerging. Was beginning to wonder if they was gonna make it there for a bit. Good to know that they viable, but if any of you have problems and yours don't germinate holler at me and I will send ya more.

I have repeatedly trie d crossign the Luna White with the " Pink" one and none of the pods are taking, every single one has aborted. With the pink having more pollen pads it is possible that the pollen grains are to big to go down the pollen tubes. I may try and cut off the pollen pads on one or two and then try and pollinate them and se e if that helps at all.

Have you tried using the pod of the Pink to pollinate the White Luna, maybe that would work....I don't cross these, so I don't know, but if it doesn't work one way, perhaps it will work the other...lol Thanks again for the seed!

Janet, I have tried both ways and none of them seem to work. I did find one small pod that had turned brown and opene dit up. It had like 6 seeds in it that had eithe rnot developed a seed coat yet becaus e of the aborting or they are gonan be albino seeds.

I don't have any augar here to try and embryo rescue on them and since I can't get to the store, can't get any potaoes to make some to fee d them . I did take them and put in sterile seed startign mix and baggy and will see if anything happens just for experimental purposes.

I went out and change d the hummer feeder and stoppe d back at the pink hibiscus and found thre e pods that seem to be goign to make it. They are pink x pink, so when they get up and get ripe will share some of thos e seeds with you all. Then ya can have some pink surprises. : )

Okay, you lost me with the Augar and embryo rescue and the potatoes....for a minute there I thought you were talking about baby Hummers....lol j/k...I have a beautful pink that hasn't bloomed yet this year...here is an old picture from last year...

JanetS;
Those are so, so sweet. Late bloomers? Please keep us posted. I'm learning so much more about hardy hib. from everyone here. Many, many thanks for the wealth of info. and sharing of experiences.
Kim

Thanks Kim. I normally have blooms on this by this time of year, but a lot of my things are later than usual so I am hoping it will still bloom for me. I have a yellow that is just getting large enough to bloom, so I think it is really a later bloomer than most.

Well, she has lost me on the "albino" seeds.Even lost me on the thaught of an albino plant.Maybe I'd better get schooled again.BTW, I'm an honor student in the school of hard knocks.Mike

LOL Janet.. Gues s today is a day for my brain to jump around from oen subject to another.

Many years ago when I first started hybridizing Daylilies, I had gotten alot of seedlings that came up that were pure white. They would grow so tall and croak. I foudn out that they are called albino's. The leave s have no way to manufacture chlorphyl and so as soon as all the nutrient s in the seed are used up the plant dies. It a genetic mes s up where the crosses didn't take.

Thes e few seeds are pure white and look like tiny grains of salt with no hard seed coat over them they are also soft to the touch. If they germinate it may be that they wil grow up for alittle be to be albino's or even mutants.

About a year ago, I was experimentign with trying to make some really od d crosses. Things from one type plant family crossed with another type plant family. Usually the odds are the seeds won't even develop, but on another forum I foudn out that sometime s when you have special crosse s liek that, if you can catch the pod before it aborts usually within a like 7 day period from fertilization, you can sometime s take thos e immature seeds , put them on a special agar liek they use in them micropropagation tubes and try and grow out those seeds. Usually they die, but every onc ein awhile somebody wil have oen take and have themselves a new cultivar, of cours e it can nevr be use d for seed production , only for cuttings.

here a friend's pic of an albino seedling. I got rid of all my albino pics years back after I foudn out abotu them and watche d them croak.

Hey Mike that the best school there is. : ) A lot of my friend s think I crazy cuz I always tryign to think oputside the box, but how ya evr gonna learn if ya don't experiment or giv e the weird or impossable a try. : ) I fail more than I pass, but I always learn somethign new from each crazy experiment. ( Like don't do that again) LOL

Janet your pink is really beautiful!!!!!!!!!!! You got apic of your yellow by any chance? I never seen a yellow one before. Sounds cool!!!!

Here is a picture of the Yellow one, it looks white in most of my pictures, I will see if I can find one that shows the pale yellow on the bloom....it is really very pretty...