Help needed : Mirabilis multiflora

[Juicemonkey]

Hi

i just got seeds of Mirabilis multiflora

i have a basic idea how to go about growing Mirabilis from seed
but would anyone like to share their experiences?

thanks
 :tea:

[gwalchgwyn]

greets,

a bit tardy a response, but I do have some experience with Mirabili & thought to share in case others would like to grow these.  the main ones that I am familiar with are M. longiflora and M. Multiflora.


Mirabilis longiflora

I've observed both growing in sandy soil of riparian areas, especially in the back behind the usual cluster of riverine edge tall trees; some of these specimens become massive with the ease of building their tremendous tuber into the sand with so much moisture around.  longiflora seems to especially love this & by the end of summer its annual foliar parts easily 3' in all directions, its pleasant tubular night flowers in masses to the delight of hawkmoths.  one for the night garden.  alternately both spp occupy a Juniper-Pinyon setting, especially the multifloras, that also produce masses of bright flowers towards the end of summer.  sometimes they dig into seasonal washes that only get surface water during the summer rains & evidently withstand the occasional rushes to become very large.  the others on the grasslands huddle along the dripline of the junipers and if the sloping is right produce many plants in the slightly more shady juniper-pinyon woodlands.  these are "tropicals" that have migrated into temperate desertlands and so they do love water.  the seedlings often do not appear until early summer with the rains to develop a smaller plant the first year, thenafter returning from the developing root tuber which eventually becomes massive.  by the early authumn drying, the seeds are set and the leaves fall leaving an attractive geometric dried skeleton of the herbaceous stems.

People have no doubt known about these plants as companions for thousands of years: I have observed multifloras in abundance next to home foundations of Ancients.  nevertheless the plant's continuance in these areas are now naturalized.  I include this natural habitat information because best success in growing either would do well to mimic the conditions: lots of water in the summer and room for the root.  after the first year it's almost futile to grow in pots.

the well-respected herbalist Michael Moore did evidently one bioassay and reduced the experience to the word befuddlement, which is unfortunate because that word is now repeated by his students and others and often in the original one-note dismissing tone.  

this is a beautiful plant.

cheers!