Abutilon

A sight for winter-weary eyes: the first blooms ever from this indoor abutilon (or "flowering maple" or "velvet leaf"). I've had this plant for almost four years, and it put up with being stuck in a small neglected pot on the mantelpiece with no direct natural light to speak of for its first three years.  I repotted it last summer, then almost killed it by putting it outside without observing the niceties and necessities of hardening it off, but it came back better than ever (after, gulp, dropping all its leaves), and now, as it's overwintering right in front of the south-facing patio doors, has set numerous buds. The photo washes out the depth of the color, which is a hue all its own. It's a kind of apricot, but not too yellow and not too orange...I'd say it's most like the color of mango kulfi. How do I love this plant? Let me count the ways: it's a member of my favorite plant family, Malvaceae; its foliage is faithful to its common names, being, yes, softer than velvet and maple-leaf shaped, and is delicately stippled in yellow and chartreuse across fresh green. The blooms are exactly what I need right now, in the orange range of the color wheel (the irresistible complement to my favorite color, blue), and so today you'll find this abutilon surrounded by a potted primula (blooming orange) and pocketbook plant (blooming orange), impulse buys from the garden shop. To know that I will be able to see this color in late February in years to come is a morsel of hope to store away for next winter's gloomy days. More hope: a thumb's-length of new green daffodil foliage next to the south foundation (now temporarily buried under four inches of fresh snow). Ah, spring will come.

Comments

[Patricia Tryon]

What a lovely color! Thanks for sharing it.

[Julana]

My tulips are up an inch, in central OHio!