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Florida Gardening

Anyone Good At Growing The Amazing Mimosa Pudica Plants?

9 years ago

If youve never seen these, youtube them. they are the ones that have leaves that close up and " play dead " when you touch them. very cool. For every 5 seeds I plant in a small 4" pot only one comes up, does well until it gets to be about 1" high and 2" wide then it dies :( I want to know how people grow huge bushes of these things. I just planted more and ordered a ton more. Any tips?

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Comments (4)

vicsgirl
9 years ago
I love these plants! I cannot grow them from seeds, it has never worked for me. They are impossible to find in my local nurseries. I have ordered six to ten inch shoots off the Internet, even Ebay. Good luck finding them ( i mean that nicely, not sarcastic) I currently have one biggish Mimosa bush in my back yard. It has somehow survived a bad Long Island winter- we had an awful cold one. But I can see buds on the bush. Once our temps hit the seventies, I'll see some of those pretty leaves that fold up and those pink feathery flowers.
carolb_w_fl_coastal_9b
9 years ago
I have the other 1 I think(strigillosa), but it behaves the same way when leaves are touched. I propagate by digging & potting up sections w/ roots attached, then transplanting after a few weeks or months.
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Will Mimosa Pudica plant survive out here?
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Comments (3)
Maty, You're welcome. If you want to grow one and don't have it growing wild in a pasture near you, you can order it as a plant or as seeds. I won't say it is terribly prolific in our pastures, but one usually pops up here and there sometime during the summer. It usually is labeled as Sensitive Plant and some folks locally call it catclaw brier. I've always known it as sensitive plant, although when we were kids and it grew in the neighborhood park, we girls called it powderpuff. Thompson and Morgan usually has the seed for sensitive briar on their website. Dawn
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anyone growing P. pudica?
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Comments (6)
I bought one this spring and am really happy with it! I have mine in the ground and plan on digging it up in about a week or 2 before the 40s hit. It has doubled in size and has 3 inflos on it. Its a beautiful plumeria and is perfect except the blooms have no scent!! They dont seem to really mind cooler weather and have thrived in a full sun spot in my yard. Its also an evergreen plumeria. A few of my plumerias are developing some yellow leaves with the shorter days and cooler weather, but this one has stayed a nice green! Heres a pic of it this spring. It had no leaves and almost died which is why I put it in the ground. Heres a pic of it as of this week crushed a little by an areca palm after Tropical Rainstorm Nicole And heres from about 2 days ago of the newest blooms and with the old inflo still blooming as well. It is definitely a unique plant and I really do like the look of it as well as its ability to bloom very well! -Alex
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Comments (10)
As a follow up question, I was wondering if there are some kinds of mimosa that are not sensitive at all. My nephew has what he says is mimosa and apparently it is quite large, but he says that it does not "fold up" at all when touched. My sister is also growing some in her green house. She planted them around the 14 of Feb, they are quite big now but they are also not sensitive to touch. They do however fold up when the sun goes down. Does anyone know why this may possibly happen? Do they need to be a certain age before they will develop the sensitive thing? Thanks :)
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Comments (2)
I have bought these at butterfly world in Miami. Have grown one to produce seeds. All the seeds germinated. But I killed all of them. All the plants are dead. Seem to grow best in shade, but what do I know I have no live plants. Good Luck. Brian
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Mia Miami
Original Author
9 years ago
wow thats great you have a bush of it vicsgirl. ya i cant even imagine where id buy them so i just get seeds. i have 100 seeds coming from amazon. hopefully i have more luck. i know they like warmth and humidity so maybe ill keep them outside here in miami in the lil green house i got. . sounds good carolb, hopefully i can grow mine far bigger than an inch tall so i can propagate it someday :)
carolb_w_fl_coastal_9b
9 years ago
Mine is a groundcover, BTW...

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