Grow Your Own Magazine

I've fallen in love with these gorgeous flowers! I've got some tubers from the GC ready to be planted. Has anyone else got them? I'm really excited (sad I know) by the different colours/variations, so I'd love to hear what you have- also if you have any growing tips please.

Many thanks
Tracy

Hi

I used to have these, I planted them in a very dry, sunny, sheltered place and they thrived. The foliage often didn't appear until early August, but then they grew rapidly. The flowers open fully at night and moths love them, the smell is wonderful too. Having had success with them (they eventually spread, and would come up every year without fail, I suggested them to a friend. When I moved I put some new ones in my hot dry south facing garden. Neither my friends nor my new ones were ever seen again.

they are certainly not fully hardy, so I certainly wouldn't put them out now - wait till spring (store them somewhere dark and cool - but frostfree - until then) before planting them, and have them somewhere very sheltered. They are worth it - if they take they be with you for ever, but it can be hit and miss getting them to settle.

Good luck

LCG

Maybe it's a good thing yours a tuber, I tried growing from seeds many moons ago and they were miserable (didn't get far). Aren't they also called '4 o'clock flower'. Anyway when mine failed, I saw them in Italy (Rome) shortly after and they were massive thriving bush which then made me think they fared better in hotter countries but as British weather is changing, maybe I'd have a better luck this time...and also with the maturity that I feel I now have with gardening in general .

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Food for Free

I grow it during my teenage years, they come in several colours : white, pink, red, white with red stripes and yellow. I love the smell, lovely! You can grow them in pots but they do need warm and full sun. The plant is bushy and reaching 50cm tall. I grew mine from seeds. Hope yours grow well, let us know how it goes .

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I grow, I pick, I eat ...

Oh Super! Thanks for the growing advice, I'll definately wait before planting them out. Thank you very much!

Hello Tracy - I, too, have recently been enjoying these lovely plants. I have the standard plant which I grew from a few seeds that my sister brought back from Corsica. They have done wonderfully well and are producing a large number of seeds, so I can re-seed them next Spring. I will try leaving one or two of the plants in the ground to see if they overwinter successfully and come up again in Spring from their tubers. In addition, I have bought from Chiltern Seeds, a packet of Mirabilis Viscosa, one of Mirabilis Longiflora and one of Mirabilis Jalapa Bicolours Mixed. If these are as easy to grow as my original seeds, then next year is going to be my Annus Mirabilis! I started off my seeds indoors and they all germinated. I then hardened them off in the greenhouse for a while before planting them out. I have five plants in wall beds and one in a large planter. One of the wall beds is north facing, the other is south facing and it will be interesting to see if the plants in these beds survive the winter. I will take up the plant in the planter and overwinter it in the greenhouse to see how it fares.

I have managed to overwinter these in a well draned part of the garden with a large mound of shredded prunings and straw over them. They have come through some pretty cold nights, but I think they are worth the trouble for their beautiful perfume in the early evening. I treat chocolate cosmos the same way and have a very large plant now that is eight years old. I lost two cosmos the first year, but I know I would have none left if I had dug them up each year to store, as I would most likely have forgotten about them.

Glad you over-wintered them successfully Tam. After my earlier post, where I said I'd lost the ones in the new garden and the ones I suggested a friend planted, the thought of these lovely plants inspired me to buy some more tubers, and I put them in around one of the beds up on the lottie and they are doing fantastically! But its hot and dry up there (as hot and dry as this summer has been, mind.....). Now to see if they oner-winter.

Incidentally I went past my old house a week or so ago, and saw that my old Mirabilis have pretty much taken over that garden!! LCG