When I was a very young girl with only a single digit to my age, my parents owned a four family apartment house in Chicago. It was within walking distance of Lake Michigan. And there were Mirabilis jalapa in the small backyard. Nobody gardened. (I dug around, made mud puddles, but this was not gardening.) Every year, four o'clocks grew like a bushy hedge and flowered. No idea if there survived the winter, growing as they did against the building's back stoop / stairs. Seems unlikely so they must have been re-seeding and flowering as first year plants. There used to be M. jalapa growing against the foundation of the small Baptistown NJ post office (small enough that it is closed while the postmistress has her lunch) but they disappeared with some renovations. Several years, 2007 or 2008, ago the Frelinghuysen Arboretum in Morristown NJ had Mirabilis jalapa 'Limelight' in their mixed planters. 'Limelight' has chartreuse foliage and magenta flowers. There was ripe seed . . . need I say more? It comes true from seed. Select Seed offers some single color cultivars: 'Alba' has, as you would expect, white flowers while 'Orange Crush' is eponymously named. There are vendors at the Philadelphia Flower Show, also the NJ Flower & Garden Show, selling "bulbs" including mirabilis tubers supposedly by separate colors. Also, (though I'm tempting fate here) deer do not snack on mirabilis. When M. longiflora seed has formed I will send some to the seed exchange. People who want to hedge their bets and ask for some directly - send me a private email with your address. Domestic / in USA only please. And I will expect reimbursement for postage. Judy in New Jersey where the forecast rain has not arrived, just unpleasantly high humidity -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: BelleWood in Bloom_2009-09_Mirabilis jalapa 'Limelight'.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 85755 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/pipermail/pbs/…> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: NJ F&G_02-2008_Mirabilis.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 115060 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/pipermail/pbs/…> _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…
