Cobea .. Cup and Saucer Plant

Has anyone else grown this?

I did this from seed this Spring. I think I had less than ten seeds in the pack and I certainly got five plants ... this is ONE of them which has now this time of the year taken over ...

 

It certainly has, LoL! :eek: :D

I've come across them before, but never grown any. It obviously likes your conditions - wonder if it would survive mine, with a bit of tlc

Just been off googling - found a place that has seeds for the white one - as you said, it comes as a packet of about 10 seeds normally. Half-hardy and suitable for baskets - think that might be a good "different" plant for next year. Thanks for the idea, LoL!

http://www.nickys-nursery.co.uk/seeds/pages/page4-cobea-coleus.htm

 

Want some seeds ????

 

Look above!!
And yes, I would love some!

Ta!

 

Sorry, we posted just about the same time ... I'll see how to get seeds and you can have as much as you want!

 

:D Thanks very much, LoL!

 

I used to grow it some years ago, not tried recently. As I remember it grows like the clappers once it gets started, but needs I think a fair amount of water.
Think it might be perrenial, with you L of L.

 

Think it might be Pete .... and almost a horror!

 

Now that I've offered the seeds, I've looked and can't see where they are! :D :D The strange five-angled pod comes first, then the bloom, then the bloom drops out ... leaving nothing in the pod. Does anyone have any clues?

Also, some are now white, some lilac and some purple! :confused:

 

I seem to remember that after the flower is polenated an egg shaped seed pod similar to passion flowers forms,
I could be wrong, as I've not grow it for at least 15 yrs.

 

Thanks, pete, I shall keep my peepers peeled!

 

Here's today's pictures of them. Being very ignorant in the respect of sex of plants, are the purple and white ones different sexes? If so, being this close together surely they would pollinate and I should get seeds? :rolleyes:

 

Looks like different arrangements of stamen,stigma,etc in the different coloured flowers, but can't be sure from here. I don't know if cobaea is a plant where you get the two different flowers on the same plant - can't find the info anywhere, but if you follow this link it'll tell you about the arrangement to look for to identify a female flower and a male flower....

http://www.emc.maricopa.edu/faculty/farabee/BIOBK/BioBookflowers.html

 

Dont think you get male and female flowers, but it may not be self fertile, might need the pollen from a different plant, so if you've got a white and a blue flowering next to one another it should work.
It could be that the male parts of the flower mature at a different time to the female, so making self pollenation impossible. The female parts of the flower may only be receptive for a single day. (This is all guess work)
Are the bees still active down there L of L?
I seem to remember that the pods only started to set late in the season over here, mine never ripened.
Once the pods set the flowering stopped.

 

We thought it very odd as the flowers, which actually started blooming very late, were all the dark purple (violacea or something ... the packet is in the shed and I'm not :D ). Now it appears we have these two different colours (and it looks amazing from the deck looking down on it) and I'm sure they are both on the same stem, but I'll have to check that out tomorrow!

Yes, Pete, the bees are still very active here!

What a strange plant this is turning out to be! :rolleyes: