Ft Lauderdale, Florida Blooms July 4 - July 14, 2009

Here are some blooms during the past 10 days from South Florida starting with Hibiscus "Rum Runner"

Hibiscus "Silver Memories"

Hibiscus "Gypsy King"

Hibiscus "Creme De La Creme"

Hibiscus "Solar Eclipse"

Hibiscus "Nightfire"

Hibiscus "High Voltage"

Hibiscus "Suede Buttons"

Hibiscus "Sleeping Beauty"

And lastly is Hibiscus "Delta Dawn"

Nice shots Jon, you've been holding out on us!

Nice blooms Jon, "Sleeping Beauty" in on my wish list. "Nightfire" is stunning

Thanks Dee & Patrick. Yes Dee, I generally hold out on posting photos until I have enough a few to post. I've had "Sleeping Beauty" for a little over a year Patrick. It's a good reliable bloomer throughout the year.

All great Jon... Love all of them..

Pretty pictures. I especially like Sleeping Beauty. Very unusual colors on that one.

Patty

You sure got some gorgeous hibs Jon, keep it up and thanks for posting them.

Wilfred

glad I got to check in today, georgeous blooms. Night fire & Suede Buttons are very cool. Is that a touch of black around the edge on NightFire?

Thanks everyone. The black around the edges of Nightfire is just a shadow resulting from the suns angle. The colors on "Nightfire" really deepen when the weather is cooler as in this photo from late October 2008.
Jon

that Nightfire is on my list...

Jon, is that a friend of Jaws, Pete and RePeat in the photo?

Hi Dee

Yeah, they're not too afraid of "Bubba" the frog since it's just one of the solar lights in the collection and he doesn't steal their "chow".

The Nightfire is outstanding. My wish list grows longer & longer. All are very pretty.

Judy

Jon that "Nightfire" is so gorgeous, love the purple on the edge of the petals, is there any hib that is totally that purple completely.

Wilfred

Thanks Wilfred. I'm not familiar with any that is solid and that dark or a purple/blue. The only one the crosses my mind might be Hibiscus "Blue Ballerina" which is a mini and seems to be pretty dark.
Jon

God I have to get that "Blue Ballerina", I get so frustrated, had the chance to get it when it came out the first time and didn't, now it's out of stock, really what that blue one, thanks Jon for the info. just have to keep waiting for it to be selling soon again or for somebody to donate a cutting to me.

Wilfred

BTW, I was wondering how would a cross between ( Nightfire x Suede Buttons ) or ( Nightfire x Sleeping Beauty ) or ( Nightfire x Solar Eclipse ) would look like, like I said, just wondering.

Or possibly Nightfire X Creme De La Creme perhaps. I DO have a seedling growing from the crossing of two of hibiscus pictured above. The seedlings only 7 weeks old though.

My friend, RJ, had a solid purple hibbie but it wasn't a hybrid hisbiscus. I want to say it was an australian hibiscus. I think he lost it over the winter but I'll see if he still has a picture of it and get him to post it for us.

That would be cool Patty. It still may be a hybrid though...you never know. Many hybrids are created in Australia.

I sent him a dmail. The foliage doesn't look like a hybrid hibbie. It is really purple. Not quite as dark as the purple in Nightfire.

I think Rita may have one too. I'll have to check with her.

Okay I went and scoped out RJ's picture queue in his diary. I found the name of it and I looked it up in plant files and there are several pictures. Here's what it is:

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/31420/

What do you think?

phughes, here is a picture of my Blue hibiscus.

It's nice, that's for sure. It's definitely a lighter purple compared to Hibiscus "Nightfire". Nightfire's color seems to border on being called blue.....don't ya think?

Placenciarita, that is such a pretty color. Thanks for sharing.

Judy

Nightfire is just dark, dark, dark.

Did you look at the plant files link? Some of the pictures there are really blue and not purple at all?

What type of hibbie would you say this is? Check out the foliage. It's not a tropical. Would you classify it as a hardy?

Yeah, I've always considered "Nightfire" to be blue. Some of those plant file photos are mine. The one you posted looks like a hardy one to me Patty. I've never had a hardy hibiscus so I'm not that familiar with them.

I know the foliage looks really different.

There are a bunch of different kinds of 'hibiscus'. They are all in the same family but not necessarily the same Genus or Species

For example, according to plant files 'Blue Hibiscus' pictured above is
Family: Malvaceae
Genus: Alyogyne
Species: huegelii

Other commonly known ones are:

Tropical:
Family: Malvaceae
Genus: Hibiscus
Species: rosa-sinensis

Hardy:
Family: Malvaceae
Genus: Hibiscus
Species: moscheutos

Rose of Sharon:
Family: Malvaceae
Genus: Hibiscus
Species: syriacus

Texas Star:
Family: Malvaceae
Genus: Hibiscus
Species: coccineus

The term 'hybrid' could apply to any of these types since that is a process of cross breeding, isn't it?

d

Interesting; thanks for posting that info.

Patty