how deep in the pot?? .. i hope not at the bottom ... regardless... the 50 degrees at night sounds pretty cold to stimulate a warm weather annual to germinate ... i might try bringing them into the house for extra warmth, until they sprout, then out to the balconey ... if i had more than one pot.. hence your use of the term 'pots' ... i might try some in.. some out.. and see if my wormth theory does impact the time to sprout .... anyway .. 9 days isnt a lot of time in cool temps... be patient ... good luck.. ken

MeMo, I have tons of seeds, too. In fact, they have re-seeded themselves, and now I have a bunch of baby 4 O'Clocks emerging along side their huge, sprawling "parents"!!! 4 O'Clocks are pretty tough,Memo. I don't think mulch is going to hamper them a bit. I think there is a good chance you are going to see them emerge next spring for you. :-) It reminds me of a funny story. As I was preparing for our first seed swap and filling envelopes with seed, I had 2 separate piles working on my kitchen table. A pile of 4 O'Clock seeds and a pile of Cosmos seeds. Apparently I accidentally mixed a 4 O'Clock seed in with a packet of Cosmos, because a thread appeared here from a participant in the swap questioning what kind of seed the little black hand grenade was! :-) If you need some seed, let me know. Marilyn

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)

Yes I put them into one garden last year, a few seeds. This year, there is not a spot in that garden that doesn't have a four o'clock plant and they have spread. A man stopped in a truck last year and said they were so beautiful and wanted to know what they were. I would have given him half of them if I'd known. Every wee flower has a seed in it and there are thousands of flowers. The seeds look like little hand grenades. Yes they have spread a long way too. Thousands around where the original plants were but also a plant here and there a long way from where I planted them. They are very pretty but they are called four o'clocks because the flowers don't open until four o'clock in the afternoon. Must say I haven't noticed the smell, must check this year once they start flowering.