I know that it's winter but hopefully someone can help me out.

I have been growing hardy hibiscus from seed that were given to me, but I completely do not remember what the mother plant of the seeds looked like. Some of the flowers came out white with the red center and pale pink, so nothing special.

But 2 of them look really unique and I've been searching the web and I can't find anything similar to them, so I was wondering if they came true from seed of some kind of named variety or if it happened by chance.

Do any of these 2 hardy hibiscus in the picture look like any existing cultivars that you know? Thanks for the help.

1) bubble gum pink color hardy hibiscus with white throat



2) hot pink hardy hibiscus with interesting color and petal shape

Hmmm, if they turn out to be truly unique, maybe you can register one or two new varieties with "parents unknown". The hot pink one is particularly intriguing. I haven't seen any exactly like either of them, but I haven't seen all the cultivars in existence, either.
The cultivars are hybrids and don't breed true, even when crossed back on themselves. Even offspring that look identical to the parent(s) are not genetically identical. Identical plants can only be obtained from cuttings or tissue culture. That is why the trademarked plant tags say "asexual reproduction prohibited", but allow you to collect and grow seeds.

I recieved some hardy hibiscus seeds at a seed fair called "Pink Elephant" that look similar.

JoshP said:I recieved some hardy hibiscus seeds at a seed fair called "Pink Elephant" that look similar.

Thanks for the reply, I've seen those and there is some resemblance, but the shape of the petals is different (shape of "Pink Elephant" is closer to the 1st pic, the light pink with the white throat), and the "Pink Elephant" doesn't seem have a very close shade of pink or the noticeable darker stripes on the petals of the one I have.

I'd love to see what the mother plant in bloom looks like from which my seeds were taken originally just to satisfy my curiosity, but I've collected my seeds from different plants in different places and had so many plain ones grow, that I've got no idea anymore where these special ones came from

Pink Elephant's most special feature is dinner plate sized flowers. According to this site's plant database, Pink Elephant is a hybrid of a Hibiscus moscheutos cultivar and a Hibiscus coccineus cultivar.
@JoshP there's no telling what varieties of babies your seeds will grow out, but I'll bet there won't be an ugly one in the bunch!
@awhite523 - please post pictures when your seedlings bloom this year.
My seedlings may not get big enough to bloom this year, but I'll post pictures if they do.

@awhite522 - I tried to tag you in my previous post, but I made a typo...

Will do...unfortunately only 2 out of 18 germinated. Still can't wait to see what they look like!

Josh,
I'm getting about 50% germination on my hybrid crosses (self collected seed), but I only got 2 of 20 Hibiscus coccineus from a seed exchange.
for the two!

@DraDiana, Sure I'll post some pics when they bloom this year.

I moved all my hibiscus around in the fall and lost track of what spot exactly these 2 were planted, It seems one of my plants died but i'm 80% sure that it is one of the plain white or pale pink one's, and not one these 2 nice ones.

So I will have to wait for them all to bloom and mark their spot so I know for sure where each color is. I Hope this year there will be more than 1 flower on these since they will be older and should have more stems this season.

I have 2 or 3 others grown from seed of which I have not seen a single flower...and it's been 2 years which is really frustrating me, hopefully this 3rd year I will get at least one flower to judge and decide whether to keep or get rid of. These ones have not been as vigorous as the other ones and somewhat stunted for unknown reasons. So maybe it's some kind of interesting hybrid or just weak plants that have been taking up space, maybe this year will tell me which one it is.

@awhite522
Reading your post inspired me to individually label my named seedlings last night, instead of trusting that they would stay in their assigned rows with children about. I got about 35 done before I ran out of labels.
I read a post the other day (irises or daylilies?) where an amateur hybridizer said they would throw out seedlings that hadn't bloomed in so many years, because - who wants a variety that hardly ever blooms? I will have a hard time tossing any of them, I'm sure...

The top picture you describe as bubble gum pink reminds me of my 'single' pink confederate rose (hibiscus mutabilis). I posted a picture in the hibiscus forum 2018. The picture looks like 2 colors of flowers, light & med. pink but the shadow of those facing downward is what made them look darker. Bubble gum pink is a great descriptive color for them. That plant has a large, wide maple shaped leaf & grows to about 5 feet the 1st year from seed here in zone 9 then up to 12 feet & tree-like by year 3. I can't tell what leaf yours has so maybe that fact alone could help you ID it.
The second picture is similar to my Rosie Pink 'Southern Belle' series variety. They grow to 5 feet & have the elongated leaf like I see in your picture.
Both of my plants make lots of seeds & come up also each Spring from root stock. Hope this helps. Trudy

@tabbycat, thanks for the reply.

The leaves of bubble gum pink are wider than the hot pink hibiscus and texture of the leaves are different as well, it definitely look to be hibiscus mutabilis, but I still haven't seen any in this bubble gum pink shade, usually I see lighter or darker shades, but I really like this one (specifically the color) not too light or too deep.

The second picture, the hot pink hibiscus, if looking at leaf shape is most likely Hibiscus Moscheutos, but flower shape I don't know even the flowers sourthern belle series/cultivars don't really look like it. And it's not just color of the flowers but the shape, most of the hardy hibiscus flowers are more of a round circular shape, while my hot pink hibiscus flower is not really circular like the bubble gum pink and others but each petal point out a bit kind of reminding me of a star instead of a dinner plate.

Here's my first seedling flower:

It's a cross between Pink Swirl and Cranberry Crush (shown below).

It doesn't look like either one, really.

I love it!

Karen,
Me too! I was thrilled - it's a keeper!

Looks nice Diana!

I'll post some pictures of mine when they bloom this year! Mine were also seed grown, they were all moved to a different place last year pretty late and one this spring, so I don't remember what color is where but they all survived and are growing well (all except one which did quite well previous years but is not doing well this year).

Almost all are a lot taller with lots of buds and most have doubled the amount of canes compared to last year.

I would love to see your blooms when they put on their show.

awhite522 said:

The leaves of bubble gum pink are wider than the hot pink hibiscus and texture of the leaves are different as well, it definitely look to be hibiscus mutabilis,

None of the leaves in those original photos look anything like Hibiscus mutabilis. They all look like typical Hibiscus moscheutos leaves. If you grew them from a "Hardy Hibiscus" parent then it couldn't be H. mutabilis, which is not used in any of the Hardy Hibiscus cultivars.

Horntoad said:

None of the leaves in those original photos look anything like Hibiscus mutabilis. They all look like typical Hibiscus moscheutos leaves. If you grew them from a "Hardy Hibiscus" parent then it couldn't be H. mutabilis, which is not used in any of the Hardy Hibiscus cultivars.

Thanks for the observation! I relooked at some of the pics I had and I think you are right the hot pink and bubble gum pink leaves look really similar! They both look to be Hibiscus Moscheutos that are special in their own way.

Seems I was a bit confused because I moved all the plants and everything around in the garden last fall (a lot of stuff was moved to different spots from the hibiscus' to the peonies to arborvitae and a young spruce), and one of the hibiscus that's growing right now has leaves that are wider and look different (leaves look somewhat like H. Mutabilis) than from the rest of the H. Moscheutos. I actually thought that it was the bubble gum pink plant because I *thought* I moved it somewhere there.

So...I guess now the big question is if the one in my flower bed with the different wider leaves is not the bubble gum pink hibiscus....where the heck did I plant that one? None are blooming yet it's still early, but soon enough they will bloom and I will know where each color of the hardy hibiscuses is placed.

I should really get in the habit of labeling my plants....always think I know where everything is then stuff gets moved and i'm clueless again

Those who label have similar problems - plants and/or labels dug up by animals, faded lettering, etc. Some make maps, but even those can be thwarted by digging critters and plants dying un-noticed.