4 o'clock Limelight

I am looking for a few of the Limelight 4 o'clock seeds. For trade I can offer these:

Mandavilla Laxa
Brugmansia
Impatiens glandulifera pink
mixed Daylily's
Gillardia Arizona Sun
4 o'clocks Broken Colors
4 o'clock Marvel of Peru
Scabiosa Ace of Spades
Daylily 'Strawberry Candy'
Impatiens gladulifera Red

I'm pretty sure I have some in my stash. I'll check tomorrow and let you
know.

I have a lot.

If you would like some, I would be interested in daylily "Strawberry Candy", if you would like. Just tell me how many you would like. I had a bumper crop last year.

RatherB

Just looked those up, kind of cool looking. I planted some 4 o'clocks last year and never realized there were so many different kinds.

RatherB, I sent you an e-mail.

Thank you for helping to solve a mystery. I have these all over the shady areas in my back yard. They were here before me. I assumed they were a Florida wildflower I wasn't familiar with ;-) When I would pull one up, I had noticed the root was a tuber but I haven't noticed a fragrance. I'll have to wait till they are blooming and go sniff one.

Well I do not have any...but if anyone else in here has some spare seeds I would love some....just email me.

Does anyone know if we have to presoak them overnight before putting them in soil??? I have a few varieties of seed and was wondering. Thanks.

rebecca30

I always do mine. They have such a hard outer-coat. I use very warm water and pour it out when it is cooled down and re-add the warm water. I do this a few times a day. I haven't tried nicking the outer coat, but I would think you could do this with them, also.

Does anyone do anything different?

4 O'clocks usually germinate very easily. Soak isn't a bad idea but I don't think you need to do much else.

CoreHHI - I recently put some 4-o-clocks of Kalediscope (sp?) and the Fuschia color ones in some potting soil like 2.5 weeks ago and still nothing has sprouted. I remember doing the same thing for my Limelights and they sprouted in 7 days in December. They are now nice strong little plants sitting on my windowsill.

r30

The ones I planted were up in 5-7 days. I just had a mix of them and they all came up around the same time. Your should be coming up by now. ????

I know, I agree. Well, I just replanted some fresh seeds just now. Crossing fingers we'll see what comes up. :o)

rebecca30

Hope that these do better for you on this round, Rebecca.

I put mine is a little dish damp cotton balls and with a lid for a day before planting. They sprout up really fast then. I have tried several times to grow the red ones....I still have not had a single one sprout. Anyone else had trouble with the red ones?

Rebecca...I have fresh seeds of the fushia ones if you need some more...let me know.
I do not have alot of luck with older 4 o'clock seeds.

I will let you know. I keep watering it a little bit every day or every other day to keep up the moisture to hopefully help the seed swell and sprout, at least that's my thinking.

r30

Patricia - FYI: once you have 4 O'clocks, you can't get rid of them - they spread by underground rhizomes. In your zone, you will need to contain them in a big pot, ON CONCRETE, or they will get away from you!

Did you know that you can dig the rhizomes up, put them in sand and then overwinter them in the basement or unheated garage? My plants are huge now. I will have to remember to save the seeds next year.

I have never had to soak seeds.

I've had 4-O'Clocks for 4-5 yrs now, and only sown seeds the first year. [dug a small hole, dumped in a handful of seeds, covered it up .... few weeks later i had 11 lil seedlings.]
they always come back gang-busters

last year I grew 2 seeds in the house, just because they were yellow, and i have all magenta outside ... and wanted to make sure i did not pull the yellows out - as i just have WAY too many.

This year I will be adding "White" to my collection.

and KayJones is correct.... once you have just ONE - you will always have them.

Honestly, no reason to over winter the rhizome - just by fallen seeds you will have more plants then you want.... as they do get BIG.

Maybe because of the mulch, I don't get too many volunteer plants. I always have to start more. If one wishes for more plants, I guess I would recommend not using a good covering of mulch, or to maybe brush it away some at the time you see seed formation.

I had no idea that you could overwinter the roots or that they can spread by rhizomes...How about that.

They do produce a lot of seed that is large and fairly easy to collect. This is one facinating plant!!! And I grow it just for the lime colored foliage.

Lime is one i do not have yet. what color are the blooms?

an i used to have a lot of mulch... but it's been disappearing.

The blooms are a magenta pink. Dmail me.

What happened to my 4 o'clocks? I have wanted both the yellow and white for so long and I finally got some seeds. I planted them about 2 months ago and not one has come up. I did not soak them or nick them. Now I am back to where I started wanting 4 o'clocks again.

stetchworth - same here, even my second planting of them did not fruit anything.