Blooming in Stereo

Last year, I discovered Abutilons. They're commonly called Flowering Maple, but they aren't maples. The leaves sort of look like maple leaves though. I bought a couple of them from Logee's and they did well for awhile, then one didn't.

I found some from the 'Bella' series at Stuckey's in Ft. Wayne, too, and those are doing better. In fact, those are blooming right now, both at the same time.



They're about 18 inches tall, and getting kind of spindly. I've read that they respond well to cutting them back hard, but I've not found them to be particularly easy to grow, so I kind of hate to mess with them. But since you can propagate them from soft wood cuttings, I'll try to do that with what I cut off. I saved some seeds from last year, but didn't have any luck with getting those to germinate.

I still have 'Ruffles' that I got from Logee's, and it was blooming a few weeks ago. It's pretty leggy, too, so I'll probably give it a trim when I do the other ones.

I'm hoping that all of them will beef up this summer, when I'll move them outside. I really love these. They remind me a bit of Japanese maples, because of their graceful form.

I'm on the lookout for one of the variegated-leaf ones and if I find it, I'll be adding it to my Abutilon repertoire.