Four O'clock shock!

I don't know about anyone else. but I love this plant and plant them every year. I love the old fashioned ones and the striped flower series. I have always avoided the limelight like the plague because they just didn't look that interesting on the package. Last spring I broke down and planted some and BOY was I surprised. This is one of my new favorite plants! The package does not do this plant justice at ALL! The color really lights up the garden and I even planted some near the pond in light shade and that looked spectacular. The foliage did not suffer from the late summer thrip spotting ,when the plants went to seed, like the old fashioned ones. They stayed looking great until frost and the neon fuschia flowers even looked pretty and very noticeable when not opened. I highly recommend this one. The leaves on some of the plants even had an interesting variegation of greens.

That's interesting, too. (I'm learning a lot from you today!)

I saw the photos in the seed catalog, and while the the foliage looked interesting, the flowers look about 1/2 the size of regular ones, so I didn't plant them.

I planted the red ones last year and was astounded the flowers are actually a neon hot pink bordering fuschia with a red overlay. In other words, they weren't really red.

I have a package of Limelight, which I believe is the real one because the little hand grenade-shaped seeds are 2/3 the size of regular 4:00 seeds.

Have you ever had a really, really pretty 4:00 with speckled flowers that you liked so well you saved the tubers? They are very large tubers, but they can be stored over winter.

Suzy

One year I did try to save them with my tuberose just as an experiment since I had read you could. They promptly shrivelled up and died lol. The tuberose did fine. Have you suceeded in doing it?

Yes, I had my first one shrivel up because I just tossed it in the basement - I didn't know you had to conserve some of the moisture in it like dahlias.

The following year I successfully saved one, but I was pretty dumb about it -- you know how big they are? I fitted one inside a carton and poured sand all over it-- totally covering it. Uh, but then I could hardly move it because it was so heavy! LOL! Mr. Clean had to do it, and as you are imagining, the corners of the box had miniscule holes where the sand when through, collecting in his pants cuffs. OMG! It was so funny! (But mostly funny because Mr. Clean doesn't have a sense of humor about things like sand in his cuffs!) With herculean effort he put it UP (over his head) into a crawl space we have to stay cooler than the basement.

Now I would know to use vermiculite, but back then....let's just say there are a lot of posts on DG that I can answer because I've done so many things the hard way and the wrong way. LOL!

When all is said and done, saving the tubers gained me nothing but a somewhat larger plant than starting from seed. I was pretty surprised. The one I saved was just a plain yellow one and it reseeded, so I gained nothing (not much anyway). BUT if I had had one of the new speckled ones, it might have been worth it to save a single tuber of a perfect flower that I just loved.

LOL that is too funny. I had no idea they were that big. I must have only gotten part. I really am not that big on digging stuff up. My tuberoses are an exception. I do haul alot of potted plants indoors though. You have mr clean and I have mr dont involve me in your plant plans! lol

I gave up on Tuberoses....they seem to need such a long season to bloom! Did I make a mistake?

I have gotten them, okay, on sale about mid season, and they have juuuuust started budding up, only to have our first frost of all come along and zap them.

They bloom much faster in pots and do great in them. I put 10 larger bulb sections in each 8 inch pot. They seem to like it crowded and they bloomed in July and grew much better than the year I had them in the ground here. Just remove them at the end of the year. The ones i overwintered in pots rotted. they overwinter better out of the pots. Not all of them will bloom the same year so crowd the pots well.

Doubles or singles? (Might as well pick your brain while I can. I swear I could post a question about them and it just sits there and sits there until it finally scrolls down to page 2.)

Mine are singles but I am sure it would be the same for doubles. I put pelleted fertilizer in the pots with good potting soil and kept them well watered all summer. You will be shocked how well they do in the pots and the smell was incredible. My neighbors kept asking me what the flowers were lol.

Illoquin,
I've grown both singles and doubles that I got from Old House Gardens (great quality) but the doubles simply take much longer to bloom. The OHG website even states that they take a little longer to bloom. My doubles ended up blooming in the house, since I had to take them in.

Too bad. The singles are nice but the doubles are spectacular. I had this vision of the doubles outdoors, blooming their brains out and producing that great scent on hot summer nights. Not nearly so cool indoors. The problem is that mine weren't shipped to me until it was safe to do so in our zone, and then they don't have time to bloom, and then they don't overwinter very well.

Donna

Oh, that's a good point, too....maybe buying them at the garden center in Early April and get them in a pot rooting in the garage before the last frost would work -- get a couple or maybe even three weeks headstart.

Ok, that's a good idea :)

Suzy

And thanks for the info on the doubles. I always wanted to try them.

Suzy,

You are a step up in zone from me so I think that you may be able to buy them sooner than I can. But may I suggest that if you are able to get doubles that you start them in a warm place immediately. That way you may get blooms in August (from a late April shipment I got blooms in late October.

They are WONDERFUL!

Donna

Yes, that's a good idea!

Suzy

don't know if you live in farming territory but farm auction/sale barns are a good place to pick up plants. They sell eggs farm produce and people bring alot of plants/bulbs to sell. I got mine at one of those sales. A HUGE box full for 4.00 . I have also gotten alot of plants from there really cheap.

No, I am in the city and there are no farms like that around here that I know of. :(

Suzy

I planted these in 2006 and still have them coming up all over the bed they were in. I wasn't really crazy about them since they get so tall and take over everything else. They would be really pretty naturalized, but they drove me crazy!

Howzabout some pics of the limelight???

Heres my "clocks" in a container, but no limelight!

I love the "pink" ones, which are really pinky lavender.

Very nice. I've tried Four O'Clocks in past years, but I guess our season it just too short and the nights are too cool. They don't get very big here. Also, I think I had some that were time-zone challenged since the blooms opened in the morning instead of late afternoon.

Wow, in zone 3 I can imagine it would be difficult. I actually dug up some pink tubers to give me a jump next year. I was fascinated to see that the pink ones attracted japanese beetles while my roses, two feet away, were untouched.

JB what kinds of annuals do you grow? Could you just name a few? I really admire people who don't let the challenges of climate keep them from gardening.

I have fall volunteers already from my spring planting! They are only a few inches tall but they are every where! Gonna have to do some weeding in the spring if they manage to survive the winter here in my zone ! They have popped everywhere and man I was diligent picking seeds! But.. still missed a bunnnnnnnnnch!

Here is one of my spring/summer blooms.

Well, the mother plants were nice while they lasted. Today I whaaacked the clocks back. All thats left is the tubers in the pot with the dusty millers I had with them!

Cant wait until next year!

LOL! Well here are the tops.. seed and all....I just might scatter them in my beds here and there.

lavender4ever, since you seem to have better luck than I, can we trade for your 'Limelight' 4:00s?

DonnaMack,

I grow all kinds of annuals, most from seed. Really too many to mention. My seed orders are usually about $500. I sell a lot of it in either containers plantings or as bedding plants. I do start a lot of petunias (Waves).

Here's a link to some yard pictures from this past summer & fall
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1009136/

This message was edited Oct 29, 2009 12:15 PM

I really loved seeing your plantings. Youe 1999/2009 comparisons are fantastic.

Donna

I've got one tuber that I have had for about 9 years. It is in the ground where I first planted the seeds from my little pack of Burpee seeds from Walmart:lol: I wasn't going to replant the following season since I had decided to try other stuff. Around April every year it finally pokes its head out and growns through whatever is planted around it. It's the mid rose pink one. I don't dig it up and don't mulch and it's survived. It is planted next to a brick wall (apt. building) so it most likely has some residual heat helping it out. I wonder how big it is? Haven't dug near it in years:lol:

I am tempted by the Marbles one. I have seeds for the longiflora (white fragrant) one which I have to try.

Well, I sowed clocks to the cutting garden.. just kindabroadcasted them in amongst other annuals.. and so it begins..

Stuck the seeds of the pink and white ones in the ground in one spot, and the fushcia in another. Only about ten days ago, and they are srpouting!

Hope the bunnies baaaack off. Waaaay off!

I found dead japanese beetles at the bottom of the nibbles leaves of some of mine.

Well, mine have been blooming for a couple weeks. Just now getting around to takig a pic!

I havee white, yellow, red, yellow splashes and this magenta. There might be other colors out there, but those are the ones blooming!

This is one from last year,

~Daniel

Love tha t light pink.. I have dark magenta...

here is one of my splashes

The magenta...oh so brite!

White

yellow

White again