Mirabilis

I have just planted in a pot the Mirabilis tubers I bought recently. The packet said Mirabilis and nothing else. I presume they are Mirabilis Jalapa - are there any others grown? They are just starting to sprout with small white growths at the top. I have never grown them before, so how deep should I plant them? and does anyone else have any tips? And how hardy are they? The packet said hardy - but I don't believe it.

I see a number of sites say that you can grow them as annuals. I am surprised at this as the tubers are so big. They must be very vigorous to grow all that in one year. Is that so?

 

Peter. To answer you in order (not often I give you advice).

They will be Jalapa the common name is Mirabilis. Only us nutters use the full latin name.

They are not that hardy so I usually pop the 'pencils' fairly deep, at least an inch from the top, 2" if I can be bothered.

If I am at all doubtful I don't just mulch I actually dig them up in their 1st and 2nd year and treat as dahlias.

They do grow from seed and flower in the first year but are not crackingly successful. Much better to get the tubers as that first 'seed' year is when you are likely to lose them and when you lift the tubers they are very small. They really want to be under glass for a couple of years in the UK (except maybe the South West).

Hope this is of some use.
I put mine in about 2 weeks ago but in a pot in the greenhouse. Won't bring them to border until late April.

 

Hi PeterS,I have grown a yellow Mirablis for the last two years,losing the tubers because I forgot to dig them up in the winter.The flowers on mine were heavily scented and the seeds are easly collectable when they form in the dried flowers..
My seeds are black and look very similar in shape and size like a pellet that you put into air rifles.

I am not sure if all Mirabils are the same as the one I had so can't comment on what seeds look like on other forms of the plant.

[ 12. March 2008, 05:55 AM: Message edited by: Kandyfloss ]

 

I'm hooked on the things and I haven't even grown them before LOL! I bought the 'mixed colours' tubers, but then found out that you can get other colours too. So now I'm growing from seed yellow amd red marbles and broken colours. Lets hope they do okay, *fingers crossed*.

 

John, thank you. That sound logical that they are better from tubers (ie subsequent years) as opposed to seed. Mine are also in pots under cover at the moment, so I suppose depth is not so important. I would have placed them deeper, but my (6 for �£1) tubers are so big I hadn't really got pots deep enough, unless I went to huge ones.

Tracy, thats interesting about the colours. Mine are mixed colours, which I assumed meant different coloured plants until I read that even one plant can have mixed flower colours on it. I am really looking forward to seeing them in flower.

 

Oh they do look fab don't they?

Looking at the pictures I took 'mixed colours' to be different colours on the same plant, 'broken colours' to be stripey flowers and the 'yellow and red marbles'- are marble effect creating an orange appearance.

I know people are saying that they are tricky to grow from seed successfully, but if you want to try the other colours let me know and I'll send you some

 

I have grown the Four O'clock plant some years ago, and found that after a few years the tubers can get pretty big and the plants can reach bush proportions.
They are smaller first year from seed but still worth it, I think, if treated as a half hardy and brought on early in pots in the greenhouse.
The tubers were never winter hardy with me, but that was in the eighties when the winters were a bit tougher.

 

Tracey - thanks for your kind offer of seed. I'll see how I get on with my plants first and come back on that one.

I am getting to the stage where I seem to be digging up half my garden to overwinter it. But plants like Dahlias and Mirabilis are easy to overwinter if you do it as a tuber. I seem to keep losing things like Pelargoniums, Argyranthemims, Felicia and Osteopermum by keeping them inside and not looking after them properly over the winter. And a year ago I lost most of my Liatris spicata to rot by not digging them up, having keep them inside successfully the previous winter as a tuber.

I need a greenhouse!

 

PeterS I planted some in large pots(just below the surface)in 2006 they flowered and set seed the spent tops were put on the compost the compost later used on the garden,in spring of 2007 lots of seedlings came up in the ground were Ispread the compost, they were left to mature and turned out to be healthy full grown mirabilis plants full of flower within that season, they have been left in the ground this winter to see if they survive the original ones were dug out of their pots and treated as dhalias I potted them up last week.