Ft Lauderdale, FL Hibiscus Blooms July 27 - Aug 1, 2009

Here are a few hibiscus bloom photos from the past several days beginning with Hibiscus "Dragon's Heart"

Hibiscus "Osceola" & Echinacea "Green Jewel"

Hibiscus "My Way"

Hibiscus "Tigerama" & Rudbeckia "Prairie Sun"

Hibiscus "Nightfire"

Hibiscus "Rocket's Red Glare" & Hybrid Tea Rose "Sheer Magic"

Hibiscus "Key Largo"

And lastly is Hibiscus "Valentine's Day"

Jon, you take the best pictures & your hibs "always" look fabulous! Your Dragons Heart is such a rich red, mine looks nothing close to that color & your Nightfire is quite the eye catcher. Love them all, you just made my day! thanks

Thanks Debbie. Dragon's Heart was a tough one to photograph well. Many of the photos made it too dark and any sun would produce a glare in it. LOL I ended up holding the pot up in the air about 5 feet and taking the photo with the other hand. You can definitely see the parents colors in the bloom (Dragon's Breath X Heart Of My Heart).

Jon

Nice Jon..

I'm curious as to how many days the "Dragons Heart " bloom held for you ?

They are all fabulous. Think Tigerama & Dragon's Heart are my favorites for today. Tried to narrow it done to one & couldn't. How many do you have? Everything looks so pretty & its nice to see some of your other flowers too. And, I agree with Davis about the great pictures. Can't wait to see what you will have blooming tomorrow! Thanks for sharing.

Judy

Thanks Jon & Judy. I haven't quite figured out Dragon's Hearts characteristics yet. These were only my 2nd and third blooms in the photo. The first three blooms have been one day only. The most unusual thing about the blooms is they take two or three days longer than expected to open. I could go out there tomorrow (Sunday) and think the next bloom is opening and it may not open until Tuesday. I'm sure some of the quirks will straighten themselves out in time.
I make a conscious effort to keep my collection somewhere in between 50-60 hibiscus Judy. I always end up giving one away to add another one to the collection. I'll usually give one away that doesn't bloom often or the blooms always face downward. If it ends up being a poor grower I may decide to give that one away. If the collection gets too high in numbers I get a bit frustrated with how much time it requires to keep them looking good. Don't take me wrong...I love the plants but I don't want them to consume the majority of my free time. The way I look at it is that if you never feel overwhelmed with the number of plants you have, then you've picked a good total number you can handle. If you occasionally feel somewhat overwhelmed, it may be time to consider cutting back the collection a little bit. It may sound strange to some but I'm happier now with 53 hibiscus compared to how I felt when I had 68 at one point last summer.
Jon

I know what you mean about " Dragons Heart " Jon

Since I grow 95 % of my collection at a different location I often pick blooms to take home with me to photo that will be opening that day. Dragons Heart has fooled me four times now.

This message was edited Aug 1, 2009 10:42 PM

You outdid yourself this time Jon! Good Job!

Jon, the first two you posted leave me absolutely speechless.

beautifull!

Many thanks Dee, vossner, Olja

Hi Jon,

Your hibiscus look great as always, what color is tigerama.

Thanks, Patrick

Tigerama is yellow, brown and red. Some blooms even have some gold and orange mixed into the color pattern. The blooms are always beautiful.

Jon

Here's Hibiscus "Tigerama" blooming in cooler weather on April 3, 2009. The cooler weather brings out the additional colors on this bloom.

Jon

it's hard to believe how much change there is in that bloom, but both are beautiful!

Thanks for the photo Jon,

My wife now wants that one to do some crosses with, so that proves that it isn't just me with the hibiscus addition because she always adds to the orders that I place.




Patrick

LOL. I know what you mean. I gave my younger brother 3 of my hibiscus plants a few months ago as a "house warming" gift. He's never been interested in plants or flowers before. He called me over the weekend and stated he had just received 6 new hibiscus plants from Dupont Nursery on Saturday. Now I have some competition in the family!!!

I know, we just ordered 11 from Tried and True for $5.00 each and half of them was the ones she wanted, and she already has asked Randy if he will have the Tigerama when we go to Florida in Nov. I think we have 10 already on the list to pick up while we are there. there is more that she wants, we need to hurry up and move down there so we don't have to bring them inside to overwinter, we are going to run out of room. because we are going to keep the coleus also.

Are you really going to move to Florida Patrick?? If so, do you have an area in mind that you would like to live in? There are two in my family down here...me on the east coast and one of my younger brothers on the west coast. Everyone else in the family still loves in the Northeast.

Yes we are looking toward the south west part, my brother and sister lives in Jacksonville, and we want where it is warmer. We have been looking at houses on line in Lehigh Acres, they have alot of houses there in forclosure, (like everywhere) the prices are really good. But we have to see what the job situation is there, we have heard some things about the area. houses on the east coast is a little higher. The company that I work for has a plant in Jacksonville if all else fails.


We was on the gulf side at Christmas. It was really nice. 81 on X-mas Eve. The only thing that she is afraid of is the hurricanes. But I told her they at least give you warnings. The house we live in now back in 74 a tornado came thru and wiped out this whole area, and then again another one hit in 01. same area. I told her that when a tornado hits you don't get that much of a warning

This message was edited Aug 4, 2009 10:00 PM

You can get some good real estate deals on the Southwest coast of Florida, depending on which exact area. Lehigh Acres is just east of Ft Myers, I believe. That area is one on the hardest hit areas in Florida with one of the highest foreclosure rates in the state. Many people lost their jobs in that area and the drawback has been that the area doesn't have the greatest infrastructure to support fast reemployment and growth right now. But, that being said, there are probably lots of opportunities for some very good real estate deals there right now.
Hurricanes are just a part of life down here and there isn't much you can do about them other than protecting your property and hoping for the best. This year has been extremely quiet, but it only takes one. We didn't have a hurricane anywhere in 1992 until August 24th. I'll never forget that date as that date was Hurricane Andrew.

Hey Jon, you can talk the talk! what do you do for a living?

LOL. I'm an accountant now. I used to do some retail management and sales and also was used in several TV commercials and magazine advertisements.

OK, now we have to see for ourselves! show us your portfolio, or at least one advertisement featuring Jon the hibbie enthusiast/accountant

There's a picture of me under my profile. Let's just leave it at that. So what hibiscus were we talking about?? LOL

now dee, you know Jons baliwick has to be accounting, he obviously has an eye for detail and the modeling fits right in as he stages his photos precisely for all of us to enjoy...I'm impressed and the proof is in the puddin, thas what my mammy always told me.

;-)

LOL Oh god. Thanks Debbie. Let's just say lighting and detail make up a HUGE portion of photography and photographing "things".

Jon! no wonder you don't have time for too many hibiscus...the weight lifting must cut into that time considerably! lol

deb! you rock!!!!!

LOL. That only occupies a total of 3 hours a week. It's actually quite boring I think.

Nice photo jon, I'd of thought you to be a tad older but definitely looking rugged & handsome.

Thanks Debbie. That photo was taken in 2007 when I was 43. I'm 45 now.