Re: Abutilon collection

Not to say that there may not  be any hairy hybrids,
but I am not familiar with any locally.  I don't think
anyone has purposely bred Abutilons for deer
resistance; but instead prefer to go for increased
bloom size or more compact habit, or precocious
blooming from seed.  As I said before, the
megapotamicum species and hybrids tend to be some of
the cold hardiest.  They continue blooming all winter
in places like Menlo Park, Ca. where it regularly gets
down to 24/25F on occasion each winter, and are mostly
unfazed.  Again, old Heronswood Nursery Catalogues
would be a good source of information for which
Abutilon hybrids have been most successful as winter
survivors in the Seattle area.  I would suspect that
most all Abutilon hybrids would not have survived
intact the winter cold you had this winter, unless
grown as container plants and brought inside.

--- Diane Whitehead <voltaire@islandnet.com> wrote:

> Thanks for the nursery information.
> 
> I am interested in the furry-leaved abutilons not
> for insect  
> resistance, but deer distaste.  A. vitifolium is
> never touched here,  
> and I can only assume it is because of the furry
> leaves, as I have a  
> small grove of them, all at nose level.  So I
> thought I could find  
> some fuzzy hybridums that they would leave alone.
> 
> Vitifolium flowers exuberantly, but only once.  A.x
> hybridum  
> Huntington Pink flowers all the time in my unheated
> greenhouse.  I'd  
> like to try some long-flowering ones outside to add
> to my winter- 
> flowering hummingbird plants. (Anna's are here
> year-long, though the  
> Rufous migrate)
> 
> Is anyone else growing them outside north of
> California?
> 
> 
> Diane Whitehead
> Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
> maritime zone 8, cool Mediterranean climate
> mild rainy winters, mild dry summers
> 
> 
>
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