March Flowers of the Day

[Nievesgirl]

I thought you all might like to see photos from the greenhouse as of yesterday.

The first is one of the area where the 4 inch pots are grown - it shows one table with the 4 inch pots that will start shipping soon. Behind that table are shelves that are holding about 1200 plants grown from seed that will mostly bloom this coming summer.These are the ones that we hope will provide a few dozen new varieties worthy of propagation, meaning those that are improvements on older varieties or show new colors or bigger size or better form or bloom more or have other desirable traits. All 1200 will be moved to 2 gallon pots during March after which they will grow very rapidly and start flowering mid to late summer. 1100 will eventually be thrown away but out of the remaining 100 we surely will find some jewels!

Next are photos of 2 unusual varieties that have retained the juvenile leaf forms they showed when growing from seed. The first is African Princess and the second is Wine Spritzer. A third one named Pinot Noir (no photo) also has retained the multi-lobed leaves. It is still possible that these will change but by the time they reach this stage it is very rare for further changes to occur in the leaves. Usually we only see such leaves as the seedlings grow but by the time they reach first flower the leaves have become normal hibiscus type leaves. The 3 named here all bloomed last summer and have been propagated from cuttings and are now growing out in 6 inch pots and still have these leaves. It's a neat feature, I think, giving the hibiscus plants a different appearance.

Charlie

OMG Charlie I am glad you posted these pictures, I thought I has some weird seedlings on my hands.

Here is my seedlings





Little friend lol

[Charlie]

Almost never, Chris. Larry Johnson, an old time hibiscus grower in Florida once sent me one he found somewhere or maybe he hybridized it. It was interesting but almost never flowered and wasn't quite colorful enough to be very popular. I had Snow Queen and another one named General Corteges for awhile but nothing came of trying to hybridize with them.

Charlie

[Charlie]

Kerry, those are looking good so far. Nice and healthy. Maybe half of all seedlings have a different juvenile leaf form from what they will have as mature plants. One day you will see yours suddenly change and the new leaves at the top of the plant will look like normal hibiscus leaves. It's very rare for the change not to happen and for the plants to retain the odd juvenile leaves - less than 1 in a 100.

Charlie

[Nievesgirl]

Kerry, those are looking good so far. Nice and healthy. Maybe half of all seedlings have a different juvenile leaf form from what they will have as mature plants. One day you will see yours suddenly change and the new leaves at the top of the plant will look like normal hibiscus leaves. It's very rare for the change not to happen and for the plants to retain the odd juvenile leaves - less than 1 in a 100.

Charlie

 I have 2 with the 3 lobe leaves the other two have normal leaves.  this cross is Devil's eye and Blue bayou.  They started out with 5 lobes then now three so we will see what happens once matured. I have Creme de cacao and its the only one with 3 lobes I have. I think that its cool to see african princess and Whine Spritzer with these leaves.

[roadrunner]

Finally a bloom to photograph. This is the first Valentine's Day bloom which was a new purchase last November in the 4" size pot. I was gone all day so I had to take these with flash. I'm surprised by the bloom and buds since it's only getting about 1 hour of direct sun now with the changing sun angle. It's time to move all the hibs back to the unheated greenhouse, but mornings are still too cold for that.

dave

[Charlie]

Very nice, Dave! I hope your mornings warm up soon. Ours are in the upper 40's around dawn most days now, too cold still for the outside plants to do much. In the greenhouse there is a huge difference between nights in the 40's and nights in the 50's. In the 40's the hibiscus sit there shivering but don't go downhill while in the 50's they start growing and blooming again. They are definitely unhappy in the 30's. Almost every day is warm in a greenhouse while the sun is shining which is what hibiscus need to balance out the cold nights.

For those who have not grown Valentine's Day, you might want to consider it. The plant does well and the many flowers are big and eye catching when seen in person. My better half hates for me to post "candid" photos showing the dirt and fallen leaves that are part of any greenhouse but sometimes these are the shots that are most revealing about the nature of a variety so I do it anyway.   See below.

Charlie

[roadrunner]

We had one morning this week with a low of 50 but most are still in the 30s. We had a low of 36 this morning and forecast low tomorrow of 31. Right now half of the collection (about 23 plants) all the 10" pots and larger 8" plants are being shuttled between the laundry room and greenhouse each day. The smaller plants are still inside the house. The greenhouse warms up to about 70 during the day and the laundry room which is unheated usually gets no lower than the 40s over night. I open the door which joins the two rooms after the sun has been up about an hour to stabalize the temperature between the two rooms and move the plants into the greenhouse to get better light, then back into the laundry room about sunset. I guess this will be good therapy to help get the strenght back in my right arm and shoulder from the strange medical condition the knocked me down for 3 months. Usually by the end of March the daily move becomes an infrequent task. Since I've nearly lost all the direct sun coming inside the house, the rest of the collection will probably need to be moved out there by this coming weekend. I probably should have posted this in more detail in "Spring is here, how did we all do getting thru the winter?" in the Hibiscus care section on the forum.

dave

[Darkhorse]

I grow Vday and although it hasn't yet bloomed for me, I quite like it.  Nice bush and it is a tremendous grower! 


Ps-  That's a great photo Charlie!  I didn't even notice the dirt and fallen leaves until you pointed it out. lol

[helixturnhelix]

Wow Charlie,

That is a beautiful V-day,  I miss mine, such a nice plant   Have you crossed V-day or have any offspring of it?  (my signature question )

Here is Burnished Gold today with three blooms!  The big one in the center is a 3rd day bloom,  the blooms on this plant last 2-4 days for me

[Nievesgirl]

Sign ! This is another CV I have that has not been doing well due to thin pot syndrome LOL

It should take off now I repotted this one like a month ago.

[Charlie]

Thin pot syndrome, eh? Good idea to repot.

Kerrie, what do you hear about the new LED lights for growing plants? One of our Russian friends is about to buy a UFO LED light to help her hibiscus grow in the long winters over there.

Charlie

[Nievesgirl]

Thin pot syndrome, eh? Good idea to repot.

Kerrie, what do you hear about the new LED lights for growing plants? One of our Russian friends is about to buy a UFO LED light to help her hibiscus grow in the long winters over there.

Charlie

TPS = Thin Pot Syndrome I have discovered that if you buy cheap thin plastic pots the hibiscus do not do well at all. These thin pots don't protect the roots well from heat and cold. Here is a picture of the ones I bought ( from OSH )






I took this pic in Feb but I forgot to post lol

[Charlie]

Yeah, those look like the ones that commercial growers use in greenhouses. We pay mostly for the amount of plastic in the pots so thinner is popular up to a point.

Charlie

[Louis]

Hi Everyone,

now that its march, the sun is getting higher and stronger. actually too harsh to get good photos without an unbrella.

However here are two of my blooming plants, a double on pineapple sundae and a single on bridal path. the flowers are getting smaller, maybe someone can chime in on the possible reason. i have not changed my feeding program, using cindy's formulae for indoor plants.

louis

[Charlie]

Flower size is really complex, Louis. Even after 15 years growing hibiscus I can't guarantee the size on any given day or even week. Generally the best conditions for big flowers are temps in the 80's and as close to that at night as is possible plus some sun but not too much and of course a well nourished plant that is not fighting disease or insects. Very hot and sunny conditions reduce flower size dramatically but so does very cold and dark conditions. So what about warm and dark or sunny and cold or any of a thousand other mixtures of conditions? Some depends on the variety but conditions have a huge effect, too. If the plants have some water stress just before the bloom opens that can make a difference. Show people have long applied potassium nitrate (HVH Booster) to the leaves of blooming hibiscus a week to 2 weeks before a show in the belief that larger flowers result. Others have noticed that if it gets cloudy just before a bud opens and the opening is delayed by the cloudiness a few days the resulting flower can be huge. Lots of mixes of conditions are possible and hibiscus seem to react to all of them in different ways!

Charlie