Mauka (mirabilis expansa). My mauka roja plant is starting to flower. My two varieties, blanca and roja, are growing in two large pots in my polytunnel. I dug those two pots into the ground to make it easier for me to build a mini tunnel over them for frost protection.

Mauka blanca on the left and mauka roja on the right.

Mauka begins to flower when the days start to get longer again after the winter solstice. Mauka roja is beginning to show flowers. Mauka seeds grow true to the parent type so i need to cross the two if i want to breed a new variety. The plants need to be protected from frost during flowering and seed set.

Mauka roja beginning to flower.

Difficult to see, but i think mauka blanca will start flowering also.

And another picture of mauka blanca starting to grow flower buds.

Now i will have to figure out how to cross them. According to William Whitson from www.cultivariable.com i should try and hand pollinate. William knows a lot about south american root crops and has successfully grown and produced seeds of many of them.