Please ID

I bought this Hardy Hibiscus at a local farmers market. I live in southeastern WI..... the woman did not know the variety of this plant. Does anyone know what kind of Hibiscus this is? Thank you! I am new on here and appreciate your help.

i dont know but its stunning, love the flower size.. any chance it seeds, I'd love to swap for some
jen

It's Hibiscus moscheutos...but there are a lot of pink flowering cultivars so it may be tough to narrow it down further than that. Here are the ones in Plant Files if you want to browse and see if you find a match: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/adv_search.php?searcher%5Bcommon%5D=&searcher%5Bfamily%5D=&searcher%5Bgenus%5D=hibiscus&searcher%5Bspecies%5D=moscheutos&searcher%5Bcultivar%5D=&searcher%5Bhybridizer%5D=&searcher%5Bgrex%5D=&search_prefs%5Bblank_cultivar%5D=&search_prefs%5Bsort_by%5D=rating&images_prefs=both&Search=Search

This is my first Hibiscus and I will be truthfully honest I am not a very educated gardener..... as for the seeds..... I don't think it has any...... sorry.

It is about 4-5ft tall and has somewhat Maple like leaves. I am going to attach another pic of it also.... I put the one up with the girls so you could see how big the blooms are. I think it is beautiful and I sure hope I can protect it over the winter so it comes back.

Do you know what zone you're in? They're hardy to zone 5 and I think some parts of WI are in zone 5 so if you're in one of the zone 5 areas it should be OK, but if you're in one of the colder parts it will be more borderline. But if you pile mulch over it once it dies back that may be enough to help it through. Also be aware that they're a bit slow to show signs of life again in the spring (I've seen people post that it's sometimes June before theirs starts to put out new growth) so don't give up on them if they don't pop back up first thing in the spring.

Yes my mom has a hardy hibiscus as well and mine were all coming up she though hers died, to much water or something over winter.. It was about 2 weeks after mine were coming up that hers started.. So wait till the end of june to consider it dead if you have hardy hibiscus..

If the plant seeds where the flowers fall off, there will be a green ball in the center, in a few days this will get bigger if theres seeds if not it will yellow and fall off..

I have a jazzberry jam Hibiscus and i tried to get it to seed all summer, finally gave up only to fine a seed pod at the back of the plant HUGE and almost done.. It much of been the bees... Cant wait to see next spring what i get from them

I am in zone 5 but I plan on covering it this winter. These pics were taken about a month ago and it is done flowering.... I will have to wait until next year to check for the seed pods. Thanks for all of your help.

Looking at the leaves in the photograph it may be Lady Baltimore or a very closely related cultivate with a lot of wild Hibiscus coccineus in its ancestry. Did you get any seed pods? Lady Baltimore is a prolific seed and flower producer at the same time and it will easily self-fertilize without the need for human intervention. If you don’t have seed pods, that significantly reduce the chances that this is Lady Baltimore. Have you measured the actual diameter of the flower, as the flowers appear to be on the large size for Lady Baltimore? Detailed pictures of the leaves would be helpful.

Note that depending on how much TLC and fertilizer you give Lady Baltimore there can be quite a variation in flower side. Here is a picture of Lady Baltimore from a reputable grower:
http://www.soonerplantfarm.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/plants.plantDetail/plant_id/739/index.htm

Many of the pictures of Lady Baltimore and other Hibiscus on the Internet are not the reported cultivate, so always use a reliable source for identification. I am not 100% confident in this identification so use multiple sources for verification. There is only one thing worse than getting an incorrectly identified plant and that is getting a fantastic plant for which you don’t know the identity.

If you really get frustrated, buy a Lady Baltimore and grow the two plants side-by-side. A cheaper solution might be to contact someone in your area with a Lady Baltimore, and taking a branch from your plant, compare the two plants. I have actually potted plants to make sure a comparison.

Mike


This message was edited Sep 25, 2010 11:18 PM

I grow and sell a lot of the Hardy Hibiscus. I believe that one is "Pink Elephant"
You can read the descriptions of some of the known cultivators on my website
http://www.deesgardens.com/HibiscusAll.html

Hope this helps.
Dee

If you would like to gather seeds, I have noticed 'seed pods' come after the flower drops off and a week or two later they appear. These seed pods look like the bloom before it breaks out. But there are loads of seeds inside. I have harvested my pods already.

GKayfes what hardies do you have?
jen

Hi smurf428 - I have a copper king, a pure white one (don't know the name), and I just planted a fireball. My white one is unbelieveable. It is so big and produces so many flowers. I have to use these hoop supports because the wind can be pretty fierce in my backyard some days and the stalks will bend in half. About 4 years ago, when I was just creating my new garden beds, I bought 3 or 4 hardy hibiscus and only the white one survived. I didn't know they prefer more than 3 hours of sun and you should water new perennials for the first year. But that white one hung in there and survived my unwitting abuse. The white one has the most sun and must love it's spot. Anyway, I just planted the fireball this year and the copper king a couple of years ago.

you have seeds from them all??

For sure I have seed pods from my white hibiscus and I can double check if I have seed pods from my Copper King. My little newbie Fireball, just broke into blossom this week. So no seed pods from Fireball - yet. Do you want some seeds from my white Hibiscus or my Copper King if it has some? I have never traded seeds or plants before. When you ship them, what is the protocol for the amount of seeds? Do trades involve a whole pod or just seeds?

This message was edited Oct 6, 2010 11:35 AM

I would love some from the white and yes if you have copper king but i'm note sure if they seed.. No i usually break the seed pod and take out the seeds and send them in bubble wrap or something soft so they dont get smashed..
jen

I can get them in the mail on Friday, if you would like to DMail me your address. You will really like the white hibiscus.

I live in southeastern WI and I bought my first Hibiscus last summer. It has not started to grow yet..... is this normal or did it not make it through the winter?

I would give them more time. I checked the general weather for WI and it doesn't look like you are reaching 70 degrees yet and lows in the high 40's-50's.

Hibiscus are very slow to emerge in the spring as they like long days, lots of sunshine and warm temperatures.

I have a few that have only about 1-2" of new growth and we had lots of warm days, up in the 80's for 2-3 weeks.

Hope this helps.

I agree, I'd be patient. I've heard people in warmer climates than yours say they sometimes don't come up until June so it's definitely too early to give up on them (assuming of course that this is hardy hibiscus you're talking about--if it was one of the tropical ones then it won't be coming back)

My hardy hibiscus in northern Illinois often do not show signs of life until mid or late July. If you leave the old stems they will indicate where the plant will come up and be a reminder not to disturb them.
I am still looking to buy Morrison Mammoth hibiscus varieties. Does anyone have them who would sell me a root and stem division?
William

All of my resident hardy Hibiscus in northern New Jersey have not yet broken dormancy. I have two rooted Hibiscus from Delaware which were shipped about a month ago which have broken dormancy. I have two root divisions from a DG member in Iowa which were shipped last week, which broke dormancy before they were shipped but it has been warm in Iowa. My Hibiscus coccineus (red & white flowers), which do well in Zone 6b are still dormant. My several cultivars of Hibiscus mutabilis, which were protected with a foot of salt-hay, are either dormant or dead, but I check each day for some sign of a green shoot.

An now for the report that none of you are going to believe! Last year (2010) I was growing Hibiscus grandiflorus from wild seeds which I purchased from a Florida seed seller in fall of 2009. During the winter of 2009-2010 I grew the seeds indoors but put the seedlings out too early when a cold snap killed all but one plant. The survivor grew and flowered (http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/308992/) the first year. I did a number of crosses with other Hibiscus and self pollination to maintain a pure line of H. grandiflorus. In the fall I harvested and tagged the seeds. I decided to not take the H. grandiflorus indoors but covered it with one foot of salt-hay and hoped for the best. The snows came and the Hibiscus was covered with three to four feet of snow for most of the winter. Using conventional wisdom, I assumed that the H. grandiflorus was dead, so I was very surprised to discover in the first week in May that the H. grandiflorus was very much alive and sending up new shoots which are now 6 inches in height.

This winter I had started H. grandiflorus (pod) x H. coccineus (pollen) hybrids indoors and now have five plants which have been moved to large pots outdoors. I just ran a germination test on the pure H. grandiflorus seeds and have a germination success rate of 90% using seed nicking and the Demo Method. If anyone wants to test H. grandiflorus seeds outside of its native range, quickly send me a DM so you can start your plants but you will most likely have mulch the H. grandiflorus come the winter; for me salt-hay worked well. I am officially in USDA Zone 6b but I do get a little extra warmth from the New York City Heat Island effect. In a few weeks when the new shoots are over a foot in height, I will take pictures and post a full report. At this point, I have absolutely no idea as to what is going on.

Mike


This message was edited May 23, 2011 1:30 AM

That's great that your plant survived! Snow is actually a wonderful insulator--people will often have better luck with borderline hardy plants surviving if it's a snowy winter vs one that's just cold but not much snow.

Thanks so much for all of your quick responses.... I will keep my fingers crossed and keep checking for growth!