I made a note on my iPhone that says "Clint's Hibiscus List." LOL. It has them numbered in the order they are in my row.

First hot pink flower of this year opened up today! It's so exciting when you see the colorful buds expanding!
It's interesting because last year it flowered for the first time with only 1 flower and the petals were shaped a little differently/more pointed, but this year it's more round, with a lot more buds.

We had a storm the day before so the coloring on the edges got a bit damaged, but it's still a beauty.

Tomorrow there will be a another hot pink flower, and a white one
Good thing I have better camera this year :)

First flower of the year:



Flower bud expanding:

@awhite522

It is similar to Luna Rose.

@dradiana, thanks for your replies, it's nice to talk to another hibiscus lover

I see the resemblance (maybe it's somewhat related, don't know what the parents are). It's similar to quite a few cultivars that I have seen and researched but quite different (stripes on the petals stand out more on mine, center is different when looking in person, and the partially red stems on the leaves).

There's a Luna rose in my neighborhood and even the color is different...picture wise the color looks really close but in real life the shade of the color is a bit different and for some reason the camera has difficulty taking a picture of the exact shade of any flower close to this color.

Off-topic.....but I have an annual, a petunia that's somewhat similar to this color/shade but even more difficult, almost impossible to take a picture of because the color comes out really off.

@awhite522
Likewise.
Here's a seedling from seed swap seeds of unknown parentage:

I gave it to a friend, but she doesn't have a place to plant it yet, so she's gonna let me plant it in my yard and give her a cutting later.
She took the picture yesterday.

I really like the points on the petals of those 2 seedlings of "unknown" parentage. I wonder if that's what H. moscheutos flowers looked like before lots of hybridizing to produce the "dinner plate" rounded blooms on today's cultivars? What's that saying.. What's old is new again.

Jill, I imagine you are correct. Take a look at the red Texas Star (Hibiscus coccineus).

critterologist said:I e. I wonder if that's what H. moscheutos flowers looked like before lots of hybridizing to produce the "dinner plate" rounded blooms on today's cultivars?

No the overall form is rounded, they just don't usually open to the flat dinner plate style. Those points where probably inherited the Hibiscus coccineus.


This is wild form

Horntoad said: No the overall form is rounded, they just don't usually open to the flat dinner plate style. Those points where probably inherited the Hibiscus coccineus.


This is wild form

Thanks, Jay - it was late when I read that.


Here's the red Texas Star.
I read on one site that the Hardy Hibiscus Hybrids have as many as 5 different wild species crossed to get the variability we have now. I don't recall what the other 3 were.

thanks for educating us about the wild form of H. moscheutos!

I do like the pointed yet overlapping petals on Diana's seedling.

DraDiana said:
I read on one site that the Hardy Hibiscus Hybrids have as many as 5 different wild species crossed to get the variability we have now. I don't recall what the other 3 were.

Hibiscus moscheutos, H. coccineus, H. laevis, H. grandiflorus, and H. dasycalyx. They are classified as Hibiscus section Meuchhusia and are all North American natives. I wrote this article on them for NGA a few years ago.

https://garden.org/ideas/view/...

Hi Jay,
Apparently that was the article I read. I had already given it a thumbs up! Thank you much for the link, so I could review it. I'll have to read ot again in a few months - it usually takes 3 readings to get all the information to stick in the long-term memory bank.
It is good to know all five are commercially available. I would like to get H. dasycalyx, laevis and grandiflorus seeds, just to see where all the cultivars get their characteristics from. I have the other two already.