Hibiscus: 1st Lord Baltimore bloom today - Happy 4th of July!, 1 by Michael_Ronayne

Michael_Ronayne wrote:
I have been promising to give a full report on what I am doing with Hibiscus Annie J. Hemming (PP835) but I am afraid you will have to wait a bit longer for the report. I recently discovered something very exciting about Hibiscus Lord Baltimore which I had to share with you. Hibiscus Annie J. Hemming will produce flowers with extra petals and stigma and seed pods with extra chambers, which I reported on here:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1251600/#post_9093...

Hibiscus Annie J. Hemming will routinely produce flowers with six and seven petals with stigma and seed pod chambers to match. Working with the Annie J. Hibiscus I became very good at spotting the atypical Hibiscus flowers associate with extra petals. A little over a week ago, as I passed my Hibiscus Lord Baltimore, one flower caught my attention. Without even counting the petals, I know it had more then the usual five petals. When I inspected flower, I found six petals and six stigmas. The flower was not in a good location to photograph and I didn’t pollinate the flower with Hibiscus Moy Grande, which would have yielded seeds.

On September 19, 2012 a second six petal flower with six stigmas was produced, photographs of which are attached. Again I elected not to pollinate the flower with Hibiscus Moy Grande. A hundred years ago Ernest Hemming thought he was on the trail of a hardy Hibiscus double. I strongly suspect that one of the breeding objectives for Hibiscus Annie J. Hemming was the creation of a hardy double.

This past summer, I have had the opportunity to work with two tropical Hibiscus, one of which was a double. Both tropical Hibiscus had the usual five stigmas.

I am beginning to suspect that the hardy Hibiscus with extra petals are not the path to a hardy double but something else entirely. One of the major contributions which Ernest Hemming made to Hibiscus breed was the Hibiscus coccineus x Hibiscus laevis (sym. militaris) cross which allowed the color red to be transferred into hardy Hibiscus. In the history of Hibiscus breeding, this cross was only done a few times. I am beginning to suspect that the extra petals and stigmas has something to do with the Hibiscus coccineus x Hibiscus laevis cross but have absolutely no proof, which would require duplicating Ernest Hemming original breeding program.

Next summer if you are growing Hibiscus Lord Baltimore, please be vigilant for flowers with extra petals. There have been other reports of hardy Hibiscus with extra petals, which almost always involve red flowers. Until you become sensitized to spotting the extra petals, you are going to have to count petals. I would estimate that Hibiscus Lord Baltimore is producing extra petals at less than 5% the rate of Hibiscus Annie J. Hemming. I would be very interested in any reports of flowers with extra petals or stigmas.

Mike