Webcat Either the red or the burgundy. I've got pink ones, one is a very pale pink with a white eye, the other is pink with a red eye. I've got so many seeds of the pink with the white eye that I finally started dead heading them, so no seed pods would develop. I snatched a few seed pods of a burgundy one last year or the year before, but it has not flowered yet. I've also got seeds of Texas star hibiscus, that is really growing slowly this year. I wonder do they peter out after a few years? I started white texas star last winter sowing season, wintered them over in a holding bed and one is setting a flower now, but it looks very spindly. I'm hoping to get seeds from it before the season is over. The reds that you have shown are just to drool for, LOL. They are absolutely georgous!! So if you have some seeds for either red, please keep me in mind. Alberta

I bought my first two hibiscus trees last summer, and they did beautifully on our deck. I brought them inside when it started to get cold and kept them in the basement next to the sliding glass doors so they'd get some sunlight. I watered them very occasionally, but over the winter, they both lost all of their leaves (some turned yellow first) and ended up looking like a bunch of sticks. I did nothing in terms of pruning and really thought they were finished. Well, lo and behold, about a month ago, one and then the other started growing new leaves - the smaller one is now beautiful and blooming; the other is coming along more slowly but more new leaves and future blooms are sprouting every day. Recently I started to bring them outside during the day and inside again at night, and I started watering them regularly and feeding them once a week with Miracle Gro. Now it's warmed up enough to leave them outside all the time, and they seem to be doing great. Maybe before you prune, you should try taking them outside when it's warm enough during the daytime - sunlight and warmer temps seem to have done wonders for mine. Good luck!

Well, I will start another thread sime time soon and include pictures of the original 2 hibiscus once they got full sized about 2 years after planting, and what they look like now. The 3 that I am growing now are the same color flowers as the original plants, even though these came from seeds off of the old plants and were pollinated undoubtedly as a cross between the reds and pink flowers. They arent quite blooming yet, and that makes them at least 2-3 weeks later than many hardy varieties, but they make up for it with LOTS of huge blooms and a long bloom time. At this point they are on their 3rd season since I replanted them as volunteers 2 years ago. They were popping up all over different beds for at least 2 seasons, maybe 3. I didnt actually notice volunteers popping up until about 2 seasons after the original hibiscus plants were removed(because they were way too large and spread out much more than just about any hibiscus plants I had previously seen). Those original plants didnt survive the transplant due to too many roots being severed, because they grew outwards many feet in all directions, and it wasnt prudent to try and dig up a 5' to 8' root ball just to get the outward growing roots in one piece! I have cut back several stems on the largest plant, and yet there are still at least 12 or more very large, thick, long stems left, that are growing outwards in all directions. I had to practically remove an entire side just to prevent them from crushing the 5' Zinnias behind them. Thats another aspect to this story: The Burpee zinnia seeds I buy(Giant flower mix) also grow much larger than advertised, and this year they are getting even taller than last year, as I saw a couple flowers above my head by at least 8" just 3 days ago, and the rest are at least 4.5 to 5 feet tall now, even though they were 2 feet tall a month ago with hardly any significant lateral branches. They are advertised to grow to 30-36"....... These plants are in a front yard that gets at least 11-12 hours of direct sun per day right now, so shade isnt the cause of tall growth, besides, they are also very thick stemmed, which wouldnt be the case if there was a lack of sun.

Brian, I will try to cover some of the possibilities. ON A SIMILIAR MATTER, DO I UNDERSTAND IT CORRECTLY, THAT A SPECIES CAN BE SELF INCOMPATIBLE OR TOTALLY THE OPPOSITE AND SELF SET SEED WITH RESULTING SEEDLINGS BEING IDENTICAL? Yes, and no. Compatibility within a species may be one of several different types, the most common involves what is called the S gene (often called the S locus). In diploids, individuals can only be heterozygous at the S gene and usually within the species there are many different forms of the S gene (the forms are called alleles). Perhaps as many as 25 alleles. Therefore individuals within the species might be S1/S2, others might be S3/S8, or S11/S12 or S2/S3 and so on. An example: an individual that was S1/S2 will not produce seed when pollinated with its own pollen (S1 or S2), it would produce abundant seed when pollinated by an individual that was S3/S4 (etc) and less abundantly if pollinated by an individual that was S2/S3 (since only the S3 pollen would work). Those would be the typical results. However, there could be individuals in the species that had lost, at least partially, the ability to distinguish pollen S-types and they might produce seeds from their own pollen. Also, some species that would be described as typically self-incompatible - may accept their own pollen when pollinated towards the end of their normal flowering season. For self-compatible species, selfing works and they produce seed. The seedlings characteristics depend completely on the genetic make-up (genotype) of the parent. The extent of visible differences between individuals in a species under natural circumstances varies. For example, some species have individuals with different flower colours eg the desert annual Linanthus parryae has some individuals with white flowers and some with blue flowers in the wild - many species have all individuals with the same flower colour. If one were to collect a blue-flowered individual Linanthus and self it one might find only blue offspring or one might find a mix of 3 blue to one white. If one were to collect a white-flowered individual from the wild and self-pollinate it one would only find white offspring. A species may be either self-incompatible or self-compatible. Either type of species may have individuals that are homozygous or heterozygous for particular characteristics, for example flower colour. A self-compatible species may have individuals that are fixed for red flower colour RR and when selfed produce only red offspring. A self-incompatible species may have individuals that are fixed for red flower colour RR (and although not able to be selfed usually) when selfing was successful (or when another RR individual was the other parent in a cross) would produce all red offspring. The genotype of the individuals does not depend on the self-compatibility (or lack of it) except for the single S-locus. If a particular hibiscus species or cultivar is available from multiple origins then the plants may differ in characteristics, including self-incompatibility. This is particularly possible when the plant is not a named/bred cultivar but is an introduction from plants directly collected from the 'wild'. When a plant is selfed and produces replicas of itself (in some manner) that indicates the plant is 'fixed' or homozygous for that characteristic. When a plant is selfed and it produces offspring showing a range of a particular characteristic then that indicates the parent plant was heterozygous for that character). Nasali Pink x Nasali Pink -> 50 pink : 50 cream is an unusual result. I will assume that Nasali Pink was selfed using normal pollinating precautions. The closest simple explanation would be that the ratio was close to 9:7 rather than 1:1. If it was 9:7 then the genetic description of the cross would be: Nasali Pink is AaBb, selfing AaBb x AaBb produces nine offspring that are A-B- where the - may be either, and seven offspring (three are aaB-, three are A-bb and one is aabb). An individual is cream if it has aa or bb or aabb. It is pink in all other cases. That would also mean that there are three kinds of cream. Crossing two creams (derived from Nasali Pink) together could give an enormous number of possible results. cream x cream from Nasali Pink ancestry might produce all cream offspring (aa x aa, or bb x bb or aabb x aabb) or it might produce all pink offspring (aaBB cream x AAbb cream -> AaBb pink. This is known in carnations and indicates that both the A and B gene are involved in the same pathway to create a particular pigment (or pigments). Many of the crosses of cream x cream would produce both pink and cream offspring in different ratios. Does a particular pollination (cross) cause the flower to wither and the pod to start to develop? Do most pods abort before maturing seeds? YES, CV X SCHIZOPETALUS I would interpret this to indicate that the schizopetalus pollen grew down the style and fertilized the ovule starting development of the seed but some incompatibility between the two parents (possibly chromosome mismatch) caused the seeds to abort. The schizopetalus pollen is compatible but the seed formed is not viable. Often due to triploidy of the embryo. If removed from the seed early enough and grown on tissue culture type media many such embryos prove to be viable (in other plant species) and grow into plants that flower. The fertility of such plants would be unguessable. Does a particular pollination (cross) cause the flower to wither but no pod starts to develop (just as if the flower was not pollinated at all)? YES, CV X ARNOTIANNUS AND CV x NASALI PINK. I would interpret this to mean that the arnotiannus and Nasali Pink pollen did not grow far enough down the style and did not fertilize the ovule. This suggests that those pollens are not compatible with CV. Does a particular pollination (cross) produce pods that develop to maturity but the seeds are soft (not mature) or empty or otherwise not normal? YES, BUT THIS HAPPENS AT TIMES WITH OTHER VARIETIES AS WELL. Does a particular pollination (cross) produce few pods with few seeds that appear mature but none of the seeds ever germinate? YES, BUT THIS HAPPENS AT TIMES WITH OTHER VARIETIES AS WELL In both these cases the pollen was compatible and managed to fertilize the ovules but the embryos were not viable. Possibly a chromosome mismatch (triploidy for example). Does a particular pollination (cross) produce offspring that are both pod and pollen sterile? YES, CV X SCHIZO LOOKS TO HAVE PRODUCED OFFSPRING THAT ARE NOT WILLING TO SET SEED USING INTER-RELATED POLLEN. ANOTHER CROSS USING ALBO LACINATUS POLLEN PRODUCED ALL OFFSPRING WITHOUT POLLEN SACS/NON-DEHISCING. ALSO, I HAVE YET TO SET SEED OR HAVE LUCK WITH POLLEN FROM THE SEEDLINGS OF NASALI PINK x SCHIZOPETALUS. The CV x Schizopetalus offspring might be 'triploids' and more or less both pod and pollen sterile. The same may be the case for the Nasali pink x Schizopetalus offspring if they also do not produce seedlings when used as pod parents. There is also the possibility of single genes affecting sterility for pod or pollen or both.