Looks like they might sprout well here in San Angelo, too. I'll keep a watch out, I have about 20 seeds in. Don't know what I'll do with all of them if they make, but I love to see stuff coming up from seed.

kayseamayer - Y'all do get more rain than we do. I call it "Moses Rain". The waters part somewhere SW of us (San Angelo), leaves us on dry land, closes up again NE of us and goes on to inundate Dallas/Ft. Worth.

kayseamayer - just noticed your post back there where you said you were raised on the coast. My wife was, also, at Port Lavaca.

These are in my planter pot this AM. Growth not nearly as phenominal as that shown by earlyfig200329 in a picture above, but I'm happy with them. I have several more seeds set out, will be watching carefully.

I saw this one on my way to my bank. This is the last house toward the S. end of College Hills Blvd, San Angelo. I stopped and picked up a few seeds. The plant was loaded with pods. The plant is on the East side of that fence, so it gets morning sun only.
Pretty spectacular!

Beautiful.. My friend in San Antonio grows beautiful POB... Seeds are hard to come by! ha

That is a stunning plant.

I agree -- stunning. I remember the first time I saw a POB. It was at the San Antonio Zoo quite a few years ago. I was absolutely mesmerized! I didn't know such a plant existed.

The SA zoo used to be 'the' place to go to see new plants. Then came the drought, or perhaps a new horticultural director, but whichever, the number of plants and their wonderful care/condition went away. Haven't been out there though since it's been raining.

What amazes me is that it is in San Angelo. I thought it was really marginal there.

wantonamara Z8 CenTex I see lots of spectacular POBs around San Angelo. AAMOF, I have been watching one in the yard across the street for 4-5 years and wondering what it was. Soon as I found out I got several and have a few seeds in pots, some of them are germinating and growing now. The young ones will be brought into the garage and put under a "grow light" for the winter.

We are near Los Angeles. I am trying to get 10 baby pulcherrimas going, I put little cuts in them on both sides with a serrated paring knife;

now they are soaking. I think I will plant in 1 gal. tomorrow.. I harvested at least 100 big brown, ( not flattish green) seeds from not quite popped seed pods on the mother plant last fall. We have one big plant and 2 fairly small which are all store bought. The smaller ones are going to bloom the 1st time this year, I think. This plant has gotten 5 times bigger than photo I prune it down to 6" sticks every winter.

I find mature POBs in commercial landscapes and check if there are any baby volunteer starters that are just a few inches high. If so, I dig them out with a hori hori knife and transplant them into a 4 inch pot. The comercial lanscapers just mulch over these volunteers; so you are saving them. I usually get a few dozen each year this way.

Also, don't give up on any seeds you've started. Ive had POBs sprout full seasons later after Ive planted them.

Anyone have seeds for pink POB for sale?

Earlyfig, several of us have tried growing 'Pink pride of Barbados' without much luck. It certainly is a beautiful color flower, but I think the pink must need year round warm weather to do well.

I managed to get three of them to grow to about three foot tall one summer, but the first light freeze killed them -- roots and all -- even though I covered them.

Figures. That's ok I love the usual color... my little girl thinks everything needs to be pink. Thank you for the info!

Sept 30 - I just pulled my seed pods off (SE Houston), and several were filled with tiny ant colonies - with eggs, larvae, the whole deal, but they didn't appear to be messing with the seeds at all. Anyone else see this?

Now isn't that interesting! There are a lot of plants that have a symbiotic relationship with ants, such as providing sweet sap in return for the protection of ants from caterpillars or other chewing insects and animals. I haven't seen this on my Pride of Barbados, but am wondering if the ants are there for a similar reason, especially since they are not messing with the seeds.

. . . . . . .

. . ?

I just took the seed pod off. Should I leave it a while or open it up to take seeds out.

I usually remove the seed pods when they are brown and dry, Sometimes they are just starting to curl up to release the seeds. In either of these conditions the pods are easily opened the the seeds removed. The seeds can be planted immediately or stored. They will germinate quicker if the seeds are nicked and soaked in water overnight.

Wishing you success!

I was wondering if anyone may have some seeds to share at all? I'd love to try planting this. Also I have seen some plants around town where i live? What is it that you look for to get the seeds from them just in case anyone doesn't have any?

Nick, I don't have any in my seed stash. I went out and looked at my plants and the pods are still green and oddly flat, like there are no beans forming. To tell the truth I've never noticed when the beans have formed enough to see their form inside the pod. Anybody else noticed one way or the other?

Anyway, I'll be watching the pods and if and when they form beans and the pods are brown I'll let you know. In the meantime, if you see some fat brown pods on your neighbor's plants you might ask if you can have a few. My plants are by the sidewalk and I get asked all the time. I'm always glad to share them.

I did find some voodoo lily seeds in my stash. Hmmmm, am wondering if they are still viable. Just for fun will plant them and see although it seems they take 'forever' to germinate.

Thanks so much Roselee! I'll try to check that out and see if i see some brown pods on them. So they're only ready once they're brown right? I'd never heard of a voodoo lily but googled it. Looks pretty awesome!

Yes, when they are brown and dry they will start to curl and then shortly after they'll open to spill their seeds.

It is almost August here in Austin Tx, is it too late to plant pob seeds?

Not too late. You can plant then now. We still have many months before a hard freeze. Sometimes we get a freeze in November and then not again until January. If a freeze is predicted just cover the young plants with a paste board box. With the later freeze they will have enough roots established to come back in the spring. Of course if you plant seeds in gallon pots you can bring the pots in before a freeze and set them back out after. Maybe plant some in the ground and some in pots.

I wrote above on July 9: "I went out and looked at my plants and the pods are still green and oddly flat, like there are no beans forming."

For anyone interested, all the flat pods fell off. Apparently they were not pollinated. The pods forming now show that fat beans are forming inside..

I dug one of my seeds up a couple of weeks ago and noticed it was split so was excited and expected to see some growth soon but nothing. Decided to try another today and noticed the seed is soft. What am I supposed to be looking for? Excuse my ignorance but I’m new to all of this.

The first thing you see is a little white root coming from the side of the seed. I think I may have mentioned above that you can nick the seeds with scissors and put the seed between damp paper towels. Cover the towels with plastic wrap to keep it from drying out. Rinse the paper towel with seeds in it every day to keep from getting moldy. Within three or four days or less you should see the root. I've never had a seed that wasn't viable, but I guess there could be.

I will have to try again. I planted at least 30 different seeds in soil.

HU, to see what they would do I nicked some PoB seeds collected from my plants several weeks ago and have had them soaking in water for 2 days. Transferred them to damp paper towels just now. Will keep you posted.

Based on recommendations from Centeal Texas Gardner Show. I pour boiling water over seeds and then drain and runse with cold water. Sometimes leaving them in water too long make them mushy and they have a cloudy film. Good luck

Stacie, have you tried that yourself? I'm boiling some water right now to give it a test.

Houzz won't let me edit, but I see that you said "I pour boiling water ... " so you have tried it.

Yes I have tried it. And once rinsed i keep it in a moist paper towel in a zip lock bag. If I am not ready to plant I change the towel to keep from molding.

Hello everyone! I am new to this forum and I have attempted for the first time to plant the pride of Barbados. Initially I planted about eight seeds (I can’t exactly remember) and of those 8, 4 sprouted. Of those 4, one died. Before I planted them, I used sandpaper to shave down about three of those seeds. It was not an easy process so I got lazy and did not shave all of them down. I don’t know if the ones that sprouted are the ones that I shaved down. Other than that I didn’t do anything special to sprout the seeds. I put each seed in an individual cardboard container and the medium consisted of regular potting, soil, orchid bark, vermiculite and paralite. I didn’t have any plant trays available so I put the individual containers in baking pans. Every day I would add just a little bit of water into the baking pan and the cardboard containers would soak up the water and keep the soil moist. After they sprouted I noticed that there was some mold that began to grow so to remedy this I began to add cinnamon. It seem to help and the seed continue to grow. Tomorrow will be one week since I planted them and I really hope they make it. I will be making another attempt to plant more in the near future. I forgot to mention that in the beginning I also used halved water bottles to maintain the moisture and warmth within each individual container and placed it on my windowsill.

I planted them in little pots in regular soil, kept moist - no nicking, no sanding, no boiling. Sit tight - they took 5 weeks to sprout, but same week (this week) most all of them sprouted.

Hey y'all Houzz Uses, you could pick a screen name. I'm not good at numbers so have to scrolling up see if it was # 77 or #86 or #34 who did this or that ... LOL I am interested in your experiences and will update you on how mine is going.

HU 960008064, that’s what I did but they never sprouted so I dug one up and it’s squishy.

Thanks for the name!

Four of the six seeds that I nicked 10 days ago, soaked for two days, and then put between damp paper towels, have little white roots coming out. This would be the time to put them in soil, but it would be several more days before the first leaves appear.

They have graduated to being outside! I put the whole cardboard container into a planter with the same medium that they were originally planted in.

Up close you can see the fronds starting to form

Use an emory board to sand down the seed.

Update on the seeds I covered with boiling water, rinsed in cold water and placed between damp paper towels which were rinsed every day..

Eight days out and one of six seeds is swollen and has a root. The other five look the same as they did at the start.

It seems that nicking the seeds, (I do it with kitchen scissors) allows moisture to enter the seeds more uniformly.

With nicking, boiling water, sanding, etc. they will sprout faster, but given time and moisture they will sprout without treatment.

Happy gardening!

Just wanted to pop in and in say that it's heartening to see that people outside of Barbados love this plant. I'm from Barbados and there is a push to get more of these trees planted. Next year I'm going to create a hedge using the light yellow and dark yellow species.

@dannielleb I know that’s a long time from now, but I‘d love to see hedge when it’s in full bloom. I tried to buy some pink and yellow seeds online but the vendor set the delivery as signature required and I was at work during all three attempts so it was returned to the vendor. the experience was pretty annoying but I’ll probably try again with a different vendor.

How do you know when it’s time to transfer them to larger pots? Once it’s warm enough outside, when do you place them in the ground? This is my first time growing POB from seeds and I’m so excited!

I have several large clusters 5' high of Pride of Barbados in my yard. I collected the seeds from last year and let them dry out and then planted them in four small pots with good soil last month. They are now 5-6 inches high. I'm not sure whether I should put them in the ground immediately before it starts to freeze or leave them in the pots. Also, when is the best time to plant the seeds in the ground to start up a new cluster?

Our Prides keep multiplying every year. our first plant was planted in a pot. The seeds fell from the pods into our rock landscaping. Now all of the plants are growing in our rocks.

Just received my Pink Pride of Barbados seeds from Maui Seed Company. Can’t wait to plant them!