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Re: Abutilons

> At 11:54 AM 5/23/98 EDT, you wrote:
> >i have 2 abutilons (flowering maples), one yellow and one orange
> >flowered.  they don't seem to want to bloom.  does anyone grow them
> >successfully?  i used to grow them in full sun but they kept drying out
> >so fast that i moved them back from the window a little bit.  
> >
> >any help is greatly appreaciated.
> >
> >tsuh yang chen, new york city

Hi All,
I grow about 30 different Abutilons in my conservatory which faces south -
the plants stand in the east window so get the sun for about 10 hours in
mid summer, down to an hour or so in the winter.  All have been flowering
more or less non-stop since Christmas... I repot regularly (I draw the line
at 10" pots, after this I start again from cuttings) and feed every
watering with half strength tomato food - make sure your plants don't dry
out,  if they are doing this very quickly after watering, make sure the
compost is really wet by soaking the plant up to the top of the pot until
all air bubbles have stopped.  In my conservatory, the temperatures on a
sunny day regularly reach 95'f, but I only water once or twice a week,
making sure the compost is wet all the way through.  I also provide extra
humidity by standing the pots on expanded clay granules.

I only have two problems - first is I feel I have to sow all the seed
capsules which appear, just in case I have 'bred' a winner :-) [so far I
have got some beautiful peachy coloured flowers with palmate leaves and a
pale orange flower like A. Kentish Belle.]  Second problem is (are?)
whitefly which are insecticide resistant;  for this I have just introduced
Encarsia as a biological control - wish they'd go forth and multiply a bit
quicker, it's like a miniature snow storm every time I peer under a leaf!

Hope this helps.
Liz Bradbury in Scotland - where there was snow on the mountain tops today!!
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