Hi Jalapas, Mirabilis jalapa is an old favorite. I remember them as a kid, but I am no expert on them, so I am going to rely on the book, The Complete Guide to Saving Seeds, by Robert Gough and Cheryl Moore-Gough, for my response. It says that Four-o'clock flowers are cross pollinated by insects. So I think that answers your question, "...could I plant some of the multi-colored flowers with my fushia ones without fear of them crossing?" as a "no", there would be a possibility or probability of them crossing. The book gives an interesting Plant-Breeding Hint for Four-o'clocks: "The flower color inheritance in four-o'clocks is complex. Striped varieties are all heterozygous and segregate to self colors and striped in F2. Therefore, if you plant the seeds from F1 striped varieties, some of the offspring will bear self colors and some will be striped. Tall is dominant over semidwarf and dwarf. Semidwarf is dominant over dwarf." I understand you wanting to preserve your grandfather's strain of four-o'clocks. However, even if they did inadvertently cross with another four-o'clock, its genes would still be "in there" and capable of reappearing in subsequent generations. By allowing crosses to occur, or actually doing them yourself, you could get your grandfather's strain in some additional self colors. ZM (not associated with any product or vendor mentioned or linked)

Here is my ‘Major Wheeler’ at age 4 from a small rooted cutting, and it has just continued to get better. Covered with flowers in May, but continues to have blooms without a pause all season until frost, usually late October here. I prune it some to keep it to this size. I have had no disease or bug issues at all, but since I don’t know where you are spankgo, I don’t know how similar your experience might be to mine in central NH. The hummingbirds visit it all summer. I haven’t noticed any butterflies or moths visiting it, and as floral said this isn’t a bee plant. In warmer places it is semi-evergreen, but isn’t here, though some years it retains some old leaves over winter.

Very true SouthCountryGuy! They seem fine. I considered just tossing those cells but I have transplanted them and all seems well. I did tell my husband I should toss everything, he thought I was being "extreme" hahaha . If I do more seedlings I will take a picture of it.

We are converting our garage into a living space and taking out the garage door and thinking of putting in a four panel french slider. Any recommendations on a manufacturer and materials? We are in the Los Angeles area so we get very little weather and the garage is north facing so it doesn't have direct sun. Thought that may play into your decision. We are close to the beach though so corrosion can be an issue. If you have any other ideas on how to turn the garage door opening, into a more residential opening, please feel free to share as well. We are open to ideas!