I grew them in five-gallon buckets last year and was pleased with the results. They got about 3 feet tall and I did need to stake them. They bloom on the growing tips so it's better to pinch them early in their development than to prune later on. You don't want to cut off all the flower buds just when they're about to put on a show. Edie

Yours looks really nice Dan! Big plant! This species just doesn't like be confined to a pot and shows its displeasure but putting on very stunted growth. I water mine frequently and try to give it extra fertilizer, but it doesn't seem to help. I read somewhere that you should only expose about 1/3 to 1/2 the caudex to keep the growth from being stunted. Only about 1/3 of mine is exposed and it is still stunted... It really is too bad as I would love to be able to enjoy the fantastic flowers this species is known for! Mirabilis jalapa showing about as much growth as it will ever put on in a single season.

Wow! I never thought this would get resurrected! Mine arent doing too well, Jali! As a matter of fact, theyÂre not doing at all! That very first one I planted, unknown to me at the time I planted it, wound up being in a place where water temporarily pooled from the gutters whenever it rainedÂwhich isnÂt all that much, but it doesnÂt take too much water to be too much for these things. And it was also planted in the middle of a vast expanse of rock mulch, so there was only a VERY small areaÂin extremely bad clay right thereÂthat was improved at all! The next year I bought another one, thinking IÂd be able to get rid of some of the rock and try again, but that spring, after working so sick for over a month that I could hardly stand up, I discovered I had severe anemia (at least partly because I had been giving blood every 2 months while I was off for 11 months with the broken kneecap), and I was so (unbelievably) weak I couldnÂt even sit up in front of the computer for more than 5 or 10 minutes at a time, so none of the rock got moved, and NOTHING got plantedÂand that one died (in the pot) too! ThatÂs also when my HP bit the dustÂmaybe it caught the anemia! I had my new Dell sitting here in the box right where the UPS guy put it for over a month. ThatÂs how sick I was! Brand new computer sitting in a box for a month! How often does THAT happen! But then, when the HP started talking to me in binary, I didnÂt have any choice anymore and had to get out the Dell. I remember the day I installed it! Oh, my! I eventually managed to get everything plugged into the right place, but when I tried to shove the CPU and all the other "spare parts" under the table where I work, I discovered the cords were all wrapped around the table legs! And they stayed that way for another month! When I turned it on it workedÂand it talked to me in English. What more could you want! (At that same time, when I was too sick to even drive anywhere except the doctorÂs office--and shouldn't have been doing that, the State of Colorado suddenly decided to void my driverÂs license! But thatÂs another whole long story! It had nothing to do with me or my driving record! I was just having a really, really good year!) Then, last spring I bought ANOTHER one! The people from FreeCycle who had taken the rock out of most of the back yard said they were coming back to get more out of the front yardÂand all summer they kept giving me excuses for why they couldnÂt come! By summer my elbow (having had 3 cortisone shots) was deteriorating so badly again that I was having trouble working and didnÂt want to do anything that might possibly aggravate it furtherÂlike moving rock!Âso the rock just stayed there againÂand the Four OÂClock didnÂt get planted againÂand I just went out to check it in the pot and another one has bitten the dust! TheyÂre taprooted and donÂt do well in pots over winter, or even for too long in summer for that matter, but I was hoping! And, since they are taprooted, you canÂt just stick them in somewhere temporarily and transplant them later, which is why I never tried that. So thatÂs the epic adventures of my many attempts to grow Mirabilis multiflora! HowÂs that for a long tale of woe! I donÂt have any live plants at all around here right now, and donÂt plan to buy anymore until the rock is GONE! And IÂm starting to think that could be 50 years from now! (Have I EVER mentioned ;-) that I HATE rock!) I do have seeds that I got from Cheryl (PaulinoÂs), and I donÂt know how long they stay viable, but when the rock does eventually "disappear," IÂm going to try the seeds before I buy another plant. At least with seeds I can start them right where I want them, so the taproot is a non-issue. The more I run out of room to plant things, though, the more I kind of wonder if I really want to put one in since they cover so much spaceÂwhich was my original intent when I moved in here and had virtually no perennials or anything pretty to look at. But after everything thatÂs happened so far in my attempts to grow one, I am absolutely determined that I eventually WILL have oneÂeven if it covers up the entire yard! IÂm planning it now to grow a little more to the side of where I originally planned it so itÂll grow around the bottom of a couple shrubs, so IÂll have the "pretty" but still have room to plant other things. Then IÂll try to plan the "other things" so it can grow around the bottom of them too, and if I need to, IÂll just cut off some of the stems that are growing the "wrong" direction. But I WILL have oneÂsome day! In the meantime, you can post some pictures of yours when they start blooming for me to salivate over! I had such high hopes when I started this thread! Still do! Skybird

I have half a dozen specimens in tubs that sometimes are planted directly into the subtropical border. This is an unnamed variety grown from seed: And another: The best variety I've found for repeat flowering through the season is a yellow from Logee's breeding program called "Angel's Summer Dream". There is also a pretty good pink variety (also semi-dwarf), "Angel's Blushing Beauty". Other hybrids more often than not have one big flush of bloom and that's it. Since I don't have a cool sunporch, when frost impends I strip all the foliage off the plants and put them in a dark corner of the basement, where they go into dormancy, getting water every few weeks while I make sure to remove any attempts at growth. Most survive nicely until spring with little dieback and go back outdoors in late April/early May. Any idea what variety those pinks are in your photos, rouge?