Hardy hibiscus seed for trade.

TOPIC SHOULD READ: HARDY HIBISCUS SEEDS FOR TRADE AND/OR SASE.
ALSO, CUTTINGS WANTED FOR TRADE OR I'LL PAY FOR S&H OF A CUT.

Hello. I'm new to the Hibiscus forum, I don't know why I haven't noticed this 1 before.
I only know the parent plant as Giant Hardy red Hibiscus. It looks identicle to the 1 on this thread from above: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/482694/
Anyhow, it wouldn't seed for years then I found 2 other tiny ones at a nursery and low and behold, i ended up with many viable seeds from them all. The original batch of seeds off the new 1's have grown out as Giant whites, pinks and white with pink centers and the original reds. I have no way of knowing which will come up. It seems the seeds I took off the 2 new babies are mostly red's. I've had 5 others growing for many years, all giant hardies of white, red, pink. They're now producing viable seeds now too finally. Anyhow, I now have viable seeds to trade if anyone has anything they'd like to swap for them.
I also have some Q's about taking/rooting cuts of hibiscus. I have great luck with growing cuttings of everything from Passiflora's to Coleaus and Brugs etc. I just didn't know where to begin with the hibiscus. I have some tropicals I'd like to cut on too. Could any of you point me in the direction of where I can find info on rooting cuts and what part of the plant is best to take cuttings from?
I'd greatly appreciate any help any of you could provide. I look forward to playing around with my Hibiscus with what I can learn from you all.
I'm also looking for a solid yellow tropical hibiscus, I had 2 and I went on vacation and came back to them both being dead. I have no idea what my nieghbor did to them but she killed them. I've been looking for years now and can only find yellow w/ peach center and I don't care for those. Any ideas there?
Thanks all and I can't wait to learn what all I can do with these babies.
JD
BTW Email me for seeds.

This message was edited Mar 11, 2005 8:45 PM

JD, I found some solid yellow hibiscus at Walmart last summer. I bought 2 since they were on clearance. I also have one with the peach center. Sorry I can't be of more help!

I have had tremendous success with taking hibiscus cuttings, placing them in a 20 oz soda bottle full of water, putting the whole thing in strong light (even direct sunlight) and waiting. Within a month or two they are usually thick with roots.

The next batch I do though I am going to try to speed up the process by putting the cutttings in rooting hormone, then soil in a gallon ziplock bag and putting the whole thing in strong indirect light. I'm having amazing results doing ths with roses and I want to see how much time it shaves off hibiscus.

DSTARTZ
Did you use newer green growth or older more woody growth on the plant for your cuttings. Was it with tropical or hardy hibiscus? It sounds like I've made too big of a deal when it comesto rooting cuts. With my Passiflora's, I have to go all out using a gel rooting hormone then place the cuts in cubes of Oasis or rockwhool cubes. Then I'd have to put them in a tray with a humidity dome over the top or they'd dry out too fast and die. Then after about 10 days, you'd see lil white roots poking out of the sides of the cubes searchingfor a place to root. then I'd repot the cube into soil or whatever medium I was growing in at the time. Even with taking all those steps, I was still lucky to get 95% success rate as those babies can be difficult to root. Most of the shoots I was rooting were cut off of friends plants across the country and mailed to me but even with my own in house plants, it was tuff.
Man I can't wait to try rooting some of the newer tropicals. I could get all I find providing the owner's wouldn't mind me snipping off a branch. Most folks don't mind.
If anyone else has suggestions or experience with these, please let me know as I'm ready to go with it. I don't have much room left to work with so I'll go with every trick I have to ensure them taking.
Thanks for the info folks, please keep it coming!
JD

WOW! After researching a little, I don't know why I've been hesitant in rooting cuts of these babies. I'm going to start practicing on a double red tropical I have now.
Does anyone here happen to have any tropicals you don't see everyday that they could send me cuts off of? Hardy or tropical for that matter. There are so many cool tropicals out there I'd love to get my hands on.
If anyone is interested, I'll happily pay for any troubles and S&H etc..
Are there any good places on the web for buying some new cultivars? Variety around here is very limited unless you're willing to pay through the nose. Heck I've been trying to replace a nice, simple yellow tropical hibiscus I lost and I've been looking now for over 2 years...I've found 1 and it was in bad shape plus it was priced at 49$!!
Please let me know if anyone here can give me a hand with any of these requests, I'll make it worth anyone's time and effort plus some.
Thanks and have a great weekend! JD

JD, I just did a tropical hibiscus co-op. The liners were 1.90 a piece. See http://dstartz.com/Hibiscus to see the varieties that were available.

Man alive! IT never fails that I'm always a week behind on all of these cool coops or trades etc.. A day late and a dollar short is the story of my life when it comes to good deals! Last season I missed out by 12hrs. on yet another huge wholesale purchase of plants.
dstartz When you say "liners", what exactly does that mean? Is it another word for small or starter plants? Is it too late to get my hands on some of these? Heck I'd pay double to get my hands on some of the more unusauls.
Man oh man, looking at the pictures of the hibiscus that WERE available makes me ill to my stomach! Is there a specific nursery these came from that I could by from?
When you were taking cutings that you explained to me. Could you please elaborate on the cultivars you were cutting on? Hardy or tropical and tree or bush?
I kept 1 huge tropical bush and 1 large tropical tree indoors over winter, both of which are in need of a haircut so I'm going to take multiple cuttings of each and use probably 2-3 different methods of rooting them. Some of the prep work I do on every cutting is to use a very clean and very sharp blade so I get clean cuts at the very bottom of the cutting. 1 set of them will go into a bucket that contains a solution of maxicrop and superthrive with a large airstone in the bottom. Maxicrop is nothing more than a fancy/selective liquid seaweed I've been using for many years for foliar feeding and it also works wonders for bringing plants out of shock and/or rehydrating. The superthrive is nothing more than a mix of many hormones and essential vitamins that tell the plants to focus on rooting rather than producing foliage. I use the exact same mixture for soaking seeds(with a lil H2O2), bulbs or whatever.
The 2nd method will be using a gel rooting hormone and placing the cuttings in a soiless mixture under a humidity dome directly under bright flouro light strips.
The 3rd method will be identicle to the 2nd except I'll be placing the cuts into Oasis cubes rather than a soiless mix. The cubes do a slightly better job of drawing air into the root zone as the watering solution is sucked into them too. I place the cubes on top of a 1/2inch layer of vermiculite so the roots will have a medium to reach for when the roots do finally emergefrom the cubes. I like the cubes for another reason too. After they root, you have a nice block of foam to handle the cuttings rather than just a stem covered with roots. That keeps the majority of the roots from being disturbed when transplanted as they're contained w/in the cubes. the cubes degrade/disolve over the seaon.
FYI For those that aren't familiar with Oasis cubes. You know that foam florists use for floral arrangements that is greenish and you can squish it into almost dust if you pinch it when its dry. That's more or less what oasis is and I find it much easier to use than Rockwool.
All of the cuttings will be misted only when moisture is needed and I'll mist with the same solution of maxicrop and superthrive. I love maxicrop as it contains many trace elements and not enough fertilizer values to burn anything. I think the values of Maxicrop are 0.1-0-1.0 which isn't much but it sure does wonders
Over the years I've practiced with thios stuff so much. there have been days when a plant or 2 will dry out to the point of going totally limp but not dead. I spray it w/ maxicrop/water mix of 1 cap ful per gallon of water and mist the limp plants aswell as water. I come back in 20-30 mins and the plant is standing back up as if nothing ever happened. Its truly amazing stuff IMO.

If anyone has any suggestions or comments, I welcome them bigtime as I'm always looking out for something new. The methods I'm using above are tried and true, some work better with certain plants. ie. Passionflowers root best in the cubes than any other way as they're very stubborn to root before dying. The cubes seem to be the fastest way too for some reason but it is only practical for small stemmed cuttings(less than 1/4 inch in dia. cuts)as the cubes are small. The bubbler's in buckets work awesome for Brugmansia's, datura's and many other plants. Since I don't know what a hibiscus preffers, I guess I'll do all 3 if room permits.
I'm going to start a new thread in Hibiscus to see if anyone else has some experiences to share as well.
Thanks for your info.
JD

dstartz, I just saw what a liner is. Those are the nicest flowers I've ever seen. I can't believe I JUST missed out n this coop. If there is any way possible I could get in on any of these babies, please let me know. I'm kicking myself for not coming here sooner! UGHH The agony of seeing all those new flowers and knowing once again...I'm a day late per usual.LOL WAaah.
Thanks for posting the link so I could atleast see what is out there now.
JD

"Hardy or tropical and tree or bush? "

It doesn't seem to matter.