In spring I sowed some seeds saved from my named abutilons. I did not deliberately cross the parents and just went over the plants and collected the drying pods. I dried off the seed pods and then opened them and collected all the seeds. I then winnowed them to remove what must have been 75% of them that were obviously not fertile and saved the good ones to sow this spring. Germination was erratic and took place over several months and I pricked out the seedlings in stages, leaving the ungerminated seeds in case they came up later. In all I have about 50 seedlings and the first opened its first flower today.

It is not as big as any of the parents but then the plant is only small. It is not a great flower either and the five petals are of different sizes. I suppose the colour is not exceptional either. But whatever happens to it I have a soft spot for it because it was the first to bloom of my little batch of abutilon babies.

growing abutilons from seed