Meandering Missive: Garden update: 4 o'clocks!

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Garden update: 4 o'clocks!

Before I forget, I wanted to post an update (and photo) on my 4 o'clocks (Mirabilis jalapa for my fellow garden gurus out there, including my favourite horticulturist!). You can click the pic above for a larger close-up of the photo. I couldn't fit all the seedlings in the frame, but most are there.

I have good news and bad news since writing my lovingly detailed Sept. 28 entry about my beautiful babies. The bad news is that NONE of the seeds from the yellow-and-magenta variegated plant have sprouted yet. However, NINE of the seeds from the white-and-magenta variegated plant have sprouted. ("Oh what a difference a vowel makes!")

At first I thought of mixing seed from the two plants together and sowing them in a big group, but then I decided to keep them separate. I'm glad I did, because now I learned that either (a) something is very wrong with the seeds of the yellow-and-magenta plant and they're not germinating, or (b) the seeds WILL germinate, but for some reason require a lot more time. I'm certainly not giving up on them! :)

In the meantime, I have the pleasure of seeing nine white-and-magentas popping up! The two oldest have even developed their "real" leaves, which are lanceolate and slim -- a contrast to the embryonic leaf pair, which are roundish and wide.

Just for fun, here's a rerun of photos I took of flowers from BOTH parent plants. Click each pic for a larger version. The white-and-magenta flowers are prettier, but the yellow-and-magenta ones smell sweeter. Oh well -- you can't have it all, I guess! ;D