Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Name These Seeds


While on a visit to L.A. to see my son, I found a plant growing near his apartment. Mother nature is one amazing lady. She can make things grow where if we humans tried to grow things, we would have no success.

Anyway here are the seeds of the plant which was growing in a precarious dirt patch wedged in the concrete jungle which is L.A. No obvious source of water, this plant grew and flowered.


And, I give you a hint by the number of seeds in the picture.

The answer is Four O'Clocks. This is a great plant I knew from my childhood. The blossom opens in the afternoon and range in color from yellows to pinks to whites.

8 comments:

Joe said...

Cool! Did you take any seeds to plant?

I have never had success with four o'clocks. Maybe next year...

earlysnowdrop said...

I was able to harvest 11 seeds which I will share with my sister, a real fan of four o'clocks.

Robin said...

It's true ~ God is one amazing Creator :)

Anonymous said...

Hi. I knew those seeds!! My neighbor, we live in southwestern PA, has one growing next to her chimney on the protected side of her house. Here, they only overwinter if their roots are kept "warm" during the winter months, which is why hers is so prolific next to the chimney. It's gorgeous, a bit of old fashioned beauty.

earlysnowdrop said...

Pennsyvania...I grew up in Ohio.

Anonymous said...

You're confusing me. I gathered some seeds from my 4 o'clocks about an hour ago and they are perfectly round black balls, not even close to the shape of your seeds.

earlysnowdrop said...

We had four o'clocks in the garden when I was a child. They always looked like this. I did google and found this conversation on four o'clock seeds.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/seedsave/msg0819103411223.html

The conversation says amount of water received while the seed was forming might explain the size difference. Hope this helps.

earlysnowdrop said...

One more thing for Anonymous
http://mrbrownthumb.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-to-collect-four-o-clock-flower.html

Here is a fellow who goes by the mane Mr. Brown Thumb who is harvesting seeds from a four o'clock plant. You can see his seeds in a video on this link and compare to yours.

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