Meandering Missive: My 4 o'clocks are sprouting! :)

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

My 4 o'clocks are sprouting! :)

I'm so excited! :) My four o'clocks are germinating! Well, okay, only ONE has sprouted so far, but the others can't be far behind. I was walking to the garage this morning to bring in some canned juice (we store certain non-perishables there) and as I walked by where the seeds were sown, my eye caught on a tiny little green head peeking up from the soil!

I planted these little cuties 6 to 9 days ago, so they're right on schedule -- at least according to my research, which says they germinate anywhere from 5 to 14 days after planting. The variability is due to factors like soil temperature, soil moisture, sunlight/weather, seed freshness, seed "preparation", etc.

The seeds look like tiny black grenades, and the hulls are hard. Some folks speed up the germination process by soaking the seeds overnight before planting or by "nicking" the hulls with a file. I did neither. I just kept the soil consistently moist and, of course, planted them in a sunny spot. I also tried to plant seeds whose hulls were already starting to split a bit on their own.

For those not familiar with the common four o'clock (Mirabilis jalapa) a.k.a "Marvel of Peru", it's a perennial sometimes grown as an annual. It forms tuberous roots, which in mild-winter climates (i.e. the Santa Clara Valley) can remain in the ground all year. In cold-winter climates, the tubers can be dug and stored in the same fashion as dahlias. Fours bloom summer through fall, then die back and go dormant. Here in the Valley, they can be sown in early fall OR spring, versus in colder climates where you'd never sow them in the fall. Hopefully between our "Indian Summer" and our mild, rainy winter, my babies will have grown enough (above and below ground) to actually bloom in the summer of 2006!

Ah yes, about their name! Fours cannot tell time, and in fact they've been known to open anytime between 3 and 7 p.m. (4 p.m. is "typical".) They then stay open all night and are pollinated by moths. What rouses the tubular flowers to bloom is actually the drop in temperature that usually occurs in the late afternoon. On cool, overcast days, they might stay open all day! Or they might not -- they pretty much do what they feel like. *grin*

The same is true for their coloring. The basic hues are hot pink/magenta, yellow and white. However, due to genetic instability (is that right, Tony?), they often have streaks, splotches and slices of different colors on the same flower! I love this and harvested seeds ONLY from fours with this trait. One plant has magenta-and-yellow variegation; the other has magenta-and-white.

I also love the fragrance of fours, which is hard to imagine if you've never smelled it, and equally hard to forget once you HAVE. My best description would be "sweet, floral and perfumey", but that still sounds pretty generic. Please click the comments link below to share your description of the fragrance. Heck, you're welcome to click the link and leave a comment about anything! :) In the meantime, you can click the 4 small pix below to view larger versions of the 2 "parent plants" of my babies....

Today I am feeling happy!

posted by ScaryShari @ 10:35 AM

2 Comments:

At 1:36 PM, ScaryShari said…

You know I love it!! *highfive* Isn't it frustrating that two such "green-thumbed" people as ourselves have to make do with such small spaces for our gardening? :( But at least it's something! BTW, would you and hubby like some of my 4 o'clock seeds? It's not too late to sow them for next summer's bloom. You can even start them in containers at your condo (unless your folks would like some in the backyard). Just let me know, cowgirlfriend! :)
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