Author: Dale

From Hibiscus for the Yard by R. H. Hanchey and W. D. Kimbrough:

“During warm weather the blooms of most of the varieties of hibiscus last for only a day. They open in the morning and cannot normally be used for decorative purposes that night. The time of opening varies somewhat with different varieties. Hibiscus flowers can be used the night following the morning they open if they are removed from the plants as soon as they are fully open and stored at temperatures [of 35 to 45 degrees Fahrenheit]. They may be kept in a home refrigerator….

“The plants are not damaged by removing the blooms if no leaves are removed. Even though the blooms last but a day, free blooming varieties will furnish an abundance of flowers during the normal blooming season.”

Hello!

I took the photos in the galleries below in sequence one day in mid-June. The first three photos are from late morning as the flowers were just opening, and the rest were taken between golden hour and blue hour, as I mentioned in my previous post (see Hibiscus in the Morning).

While it’s certainly true (as noted in the quotation above) that hibiscus flowers typically only last one day, it’s also true that the texture of the flower petals change as the day wears on: they get thinner and become more translucent with evening’s approach. In all the photos after the first three, then, you can see two things happening: the flower petals are thinning so more light appears to pass through them (the eye and the camera see that as less intense reflected color saturation); and different colors become more apparent as the sunlight changes from late-day warmth to the cooler blue and purple glow that accompanies early evening light. There is a marked shift from warm to cool colors between the seventh and eight photo below, taken just a few minutes apart.

Thanks for taking a look!

From Hibiscus for the Yard by R. H. Hanchey and W. D. Kimbrough:

“The hibiscus is one of the most popular flowering plants grown in tropical and subtropical areas…. It belongs to the mallow family, which contains several well-known plants such as cotton, hollyhock, turks cap, and the mallows. The genus Hibiscus also includes the shrub althea, confederate rose, and okra. The fringed hibiscus from Africa, the species schizopetalus, also belongs to this genus.

“There are several reasons for the increased popularity of the hibiscus. Improved varieties, especially some of the doubles, that attract attention are an important one. The fact that hibiscus bloom at a time of year when other flowers are not too plentiful, or are of poor quality, is of considerable importance. The realization that hibiscus may be grown successfully in many areas where it had not been grown has been helpful. The personal interest of some nurserymen in hibiscus and their making plants of good varieties available at reasonable prices has given impetus to the popularity of the plant.”

From “Hibiscus (Malvaceae)” in Garden Flora: The Natural and Cultural History of the Plants In Your Garden by Noel Kingsbury:

“In those temperate regions with warm and humid summers, the range in [hibiscus] cultivation is boosted by a number of herbaceous perennial species from the U.S. Southeast, which have enormous flowers, e.g., Hibiscus moscheutos. In the tropics, H. rosa-sinensis is the most popular species in cultivation, with many varieties in a wide range of colours. A native of eastern Asia it has been in cultivation for many centuries — it is not clear how many. It is a polyploid, which adds much complexity and indeed unpredictability to its genetics; it is a very popular plant for both commercial and amateur breeding across the tropics, with many local societies promoting the plant and encouraging breeding.”

Hello!

In an earlier post (see Bearded Iris Motley Mix (1 of 2)), I mentioned that I bought a couple of new hibiscus plants for two pots in my garden, but had no idea what kind or color the flowers would be since they only had a generic “Hello My Name is Hibiscus” plant tag. They started blooming a couple of weeks later, and while I initially thought they would be orange because of the color of their flower buds, the orange faded away as they opened and was replaced by dark red centers and saturated pink petals.

This is the first of two posts featuring these hibiscus, showing photos taken mid-morning. In the next post, I’ll show photos of these same hibiscus flowers taken in the early evening, between the late-day golden hour and blue hour around sunset. It was fun to see how the representation of color changed later in the day, when fading sun highlighted some of the blue, purple, and magenta in the flowers over the pinks and reds. Neat how that happens, don’t you think?

Thanks for taking a look!