Hibiscus: A Confederate Rose In A Yankee Garden, 0 by Michael_Ronayne

Michael_Ronayne wrote:
The North-East New Jersey/New York City region has been hit by the earliest snowstorm in the last 150 years and we have only been keeping records for the last 190 years. We have 4 plus inches on the ground and the forecast is for 8 to 12 inches. If you look at the attached picture, which features what is left of Hibiscus mutabilis Alma’s Stat, it would be safe to conclude that the Hibiscus blooming season is over for me. I am attempting to salvage a few more seeds from late blooming Hibiscus hybrids. I recovered most of my seeds but not everything. Hibiscus mutabilis Alma’s Star is on the ground but the stems didn’t break. I can’t say the same for my Hibiscus grandiflorus which was over 7 feet tall; the stems snapped like toothpicks. There is one more pod I want off of H. grandiflorus and I will see if I can find it under the snow, assuming the tag held.

I was able to obtain additional information about Alma’s Star before disaster struck. The bloom time for Hibiscus mutabilis Alma’s Star is five days and there are no color changes as the flower remains pink throughout the bloom cycle. I found the central flower referenced in the plant patent but I am not sure if that structure is sounded by 4 or 5 flower like structures. I examined the flowers and found the reproductive structures were highly deformed. The pistil was almost unrecognizable and clearly non-functional. I did find structures which resembled anthers but they contained to visible pollen. The anthers were connected to the petals and not the pistil as in normal Hibiscus. The pistil will never produce seeds and it is extremely unlikely that the anthers will ever yield viable pollen. Short of advanced genetic engineering manipulations, Hibiscus mutabilis Alma’s Star is a beautiful dead-end.

All of our trees in New Jersey are in full leaf and they are coming down all over the place and taking power lines with them. I lost one branch of my Magnolia grandiflora Bracken's Brown Beauty because I assumed that as the tree was always in full leaf I had nothing to worry about; I was wrong. Fortunately, one of my daughters heeded my warning, which I ignored, and was able to save her recently planted trees. The extendable aluminum painting poles are ideal for knocking snow and ice off tall trees.

I was able to get my must-save semi-tropical Hibiscus in the house but others, which were a summer experiments, are lost. I was hoping to harvest seeds from some semi-tropical Hibiscus but that is unlikely now but I will check anyway. I have been expecting the climate to turn a lot colder for some time now and was not surprised by last winter but had continued to hope that I would have a few more warm weeks in the fall to harvest seeds from more cold tolerant hybrids; it looks like I am running out of time. If the Livingston and Penn Event continues to progress on the Sun, I will not live long enough to see the end of it. I should have known better, time to start working on Plan B. There are two categories of semi-tropical’s Hibiscus, one group are summer bloomers and the other fall bloomers; and yes, there are a few in-betweens. It appears that I will have to focus on summer bloomers or move south.

Mike