I just had to share! I planted the Hibiscus coccineus Texas Star Red/Scarlet Hibiscus from seed on April 1st. It started blooming several weeks ago. I have it in an XL pot and hope to overwinter outside as the plant is supposed to be hardy to zone 6a (which I am in; old classification was zone 5b). The flowers are extraordinarily beautiful. I wished they lasted more than a day.
Beautifull. I also love this plant. I have him in full ground. And it comes back every spring. This year it was here -18 degrees celcius. (255,15 K / -0,4 F)
I, too, have this one, and love it, though I purchased mine from a nursery last Spring. It produced a great many seeds this summer, which I'm so glad I collected to save and start babies. May I ask you to share your technique for starting this baby from seed? I thought about starting them indoors in the winter to see if they'd be bigger/stronger for planting outside come spring. Any info you can share on your sowing experience is most appreciated!
I have sown some seeds in february. Inside my house in front of a window. I soaked them overnight. And they came up pretty soon. I did nothing special.
Ow I forgot. I always sterilize my sowing ground in the microwave.
Sterilize the sowing ground? I'm not sure what that means. Can you please explain?
I use Jiffy seed starting mix. It is supposed to be sterile. I have heard you can put mixes in the microwave and zap them to be sure they are sterile. Haven't tried that, yet.
I followed the instructions that came with the Hibiscus coccineus seeds:
Soak seeds in hot water 1 hour before sowing.
Sow at 64 degrees in the spring.
The seed buried as deep as the seed is wide.
I think they germinated fairly quickly.
I planted the seeds in 3" peat pots and put them under fluorescent lights (1 warm/1cool) in my basement, the lights about 4"-6" above the plastic dome. Once the seeds germinated I removed the dome, and watered from the bottom when needed, always keeping the lights within 6" of the plants as they grew. Once there was a second set of true leaves, I started fertilizing when I bottom watered with a low dose liquid fertilizer mixed in the water.
My notes for this plant says it needs a lot of water, so I have kept it from getting thirsty all summer, and when I planted it outside I added extra peat and compost to my potting mix because I have a note saying the plant prefers a mildly acidic growing medium.
I grew 2 plants and put both together in a 22" plastic pot. There were some 4 O'clocks in the pot with them I removed when they started to fade, and when I took out the 4 O'clocks I found the Hibiscus put out a large thick-stalked root system. I'm going to leave the Hibiscus in the pot for the winter with composted mulch heaped on top for protection. I overwintered Coral Bells in the pot and they survived, so I'm hoping the Hibiscus will, also. In case it doesn't, I plan on collecting seeds. But next year I'm going to start sowing seeds in March so I'll have blooms earlier.
I just put the dirt in a bowl in the microwave with a glass plate on top of it. I put in a little water. And then on maximum power for 10 minutes.
I have sown some pretty rare seeds and then it is sad when molds take them over. I also put the seeds in a special liquid to sterilize the seeds a little bit.
That is quiet a beautiful hib you got yourself from seeds, love it, love the shape and intense red it has, thanks for sharing such a nice photo of it with us.
Wilfred
