uhhhhh, Chinese Lanterns are so thuggish, I don't even look at them.. :) Take warning!!!

Hmmm. I may have typed too quickly and fallen for the common name thing :) The chinese lanterns that I am thinking of are a different plant.

Your plant looks very pretty!

Lisa

Here is a link that might be useful: Chinese Lanterns

Sharon, I have grown abutilon both from purchased plants and from seeds, and they were only okay. I got the impression from watching them grow that they weren't very happy about our summertime heat. They grew well enough in spring, but slowed down in summer. I kept them in morning sun and afternoon shade, and grew them in containers so I could keep them more moist than if they were in the ground.

I believe I grew them from about 2000-2003 or 2004, starting with new plants every year because I did not bring them inside to overwinter. The flowers are really pretty, but I never saw a hummer or butterfly or bee visit them.

There's lots of different abutilons so it could be that the ones I had just weren't attractive to the wild critters for one reason or another.

I don't grow them anymore because I found they needed more pampering than I was willing to give them.

Dawn

Drat....I'd not ever seen them before and was intrigued. I do NOT need anything that needs pampering - it would just have to die :~)

Sharon

Sharon,

They just looked so enticingly beautiful sitting there in Calloway's Nursery that I had to buy a couple and bring them home. I know that I kept them alive through the summer, but they spent all of July and August in the shade of the screened porch. At our house, it is a good thing they didn't attract hummers because any hummer that came on the screened porch might have become trapped there by a cat.

I wouldn't give up on the idea of abutilon. Just watch for the eventual development of abutilon varieties with great heat tolerance. They do amazing things with breeding programs nowadays, so abutilons that are truly heat tolerant are not out of the question.

Dawn