This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Re: Abutilon

 Bjarcia@aol.com asked:

>Can Anyone tell me just how fast Abutilon ( Or Flowering maple, Chinese
>Bellflower) grows in one season? Any pests it might get and anything to keep
>it from getting too rangy and scraggly looking?

Sean made some interesting observations about various Abutilons and
although our climates may differ somewhat, I've found that Abutilon
megapotamicum, most of its varieties and hybrids can grow extremely
fast - putting on up to 6ft. of growth or more per year.  

Currently I have a 'meg.' hybrid - Abutilon 'Patrick Synge' growing in
a large tub outside my back door.  It is trained up a trellis exposed
to severe easterly winds during winter and over the past 2 years, has
grown to well over 10ft high and 20ft across.  This hybrid produces
typical megapotamicum style flowers, but they are much larger - up to
2ins. across and a rich copper-orange with large, velvet-red inflated
calyces.   To all intents and purposes, it is a giant megapotamicum
with more richly coloured flowers.

Flowering commences in early March here in the UK., continuing until
well into December during most years.  Usually, I prune it hard
towards the end of the year by which time it has started to become
rather leggy.  The most troublesome pests with my plants are aphids
and whitefly - scale only appears to affect evergreens such as Sweet
bay (Laurus nobilis), out of door in the UK.  Occasionally moth
caterpillars can create havoc with the leaves, but these and the other
pests I've mentioned are easily controlled by the careful use of a
proprietary insecticide.  If aphids (greenfly) are the only problem, I
make up a spray using 1 teaspoon of a soap-based washing-up liquid in
a gallon of water - this is immediately effective and perfectly safe.

Various 'Maple-leaved' hybrids also grow extremely fast although not
with the same vigour as 'Patrick Synge'.  'Snowball', 'Apricot' &
'Yellow Belle'  will run up to 6ft in a single season and have to be
regularly 'pinched-out' in order to retain a stocky framework of
branches.  'Savitzii' - an old, almost white leaved hybrid is the
slowest with me and rarely makes more than a couple of feet of growth
due to the very low levels of chlorophyll in many of its leaves.

Seed of Abutilon vitifolium, sown in February, have produced plants
that are now over 4ft. high and just coming into bloom, bearing masses
of showy, lilac pink flowers.  This species will easily form a near
'tree-like' specimen in a few years and appears to be the most frost
hardy of them all.  It is best pruned quite severely early in its life
(best carried out immediately after flowering), in order that a good,
basic framework of branches is formed, otherwise the plant can
'collapse' under its own weight.

David Poole
--

               dave_poole@ilsham.demon.co.uk
           website:http://www.ilsham.demon.co.uk
                         TORQUAY UK
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index