Wake-up And Smell The Hardy Hibiscus

As regular readers of the Hibiscus forum know, I have been researching Hibiscus grandiflorus outside its normal comfort zone and into Zone 6b where I live.

Hibiscus grandiflorus in the Cold
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1187448/

While reading about Hibiscus grandiflorus recently I learned that Hibiscus grandiflorus is reported to be both fragrant and a night bloomer. I did notice the unusual bloom times for my Hibiscus grandiflorus last year but failed to draw the correct conclusion and never though to check any of my hardy Hibiscus for fragrance. Note that I still need to verify these observations with the Hibiscus grandiflorus I am growing.

Hibiscus grandiflorus and its hybrids should be of interest to those keeping butterfly and humming bird gardens. Obviously fragrance would be a big advantage for a night bloomer in attracting pollinators. Here are my sources:

Hibiscus grandiflorus by Dr. Steve Christman
http://www.floridata.com/ref/h/hibi_gra.cfm

Features
We love to grow the native American Hibiscus, and this one is our favorite. It's the largest North American Hibiscus and has the largest flowers. It's the only one that is fragrant, and the only one that blooms at night.

Another authoritative source identified Hibiscus Moy Grande, a Hibiscus grandiflorus hybrid, as fragrant.

The Gigantean Flower Only From Texas by Dr. Jerry M. Parsons
http://www.plantanswers.com/hibiscus.htm

Another cut flower advantage of Moy Grande is one of its parents, H. grandiflorus, is fragrant giving Moy Grande fragrance as well.

I found one retail website which specializes in humming bird gardens, recommending most hardy Hibiscus as fragrant, but I can’t accept that with out additional evidence, particularly when botanists are only identifying Hibiscus grandiflorus and its hybrids as being fragrant. For now the only Hibiscus in section Muenchhusia which is documented as fragrant is Hibiscus grandiflorus. For additional information on the 5 universally recognized species in section Muenchhusia see the following:

Hibiscus section Muenchhusia
http://www.malvaceae.info/Genera/Hibiscus/Muenchhusia.php

Almost all of the hardy Hibiscus which are under cultivation today are the result of hybridization of the five Muenchhusia species over the last 100 years. It is possible that if more than one Muenchhusia species is fragrant, that trait could have been lost through hybridization and selective breeding. The only way to verify this, would to sniff know specimens of wild Hibiscus in section Muenchhusia. The converse could also be true; many of our hardy Hibiscus cultivars could be fragrant if they have Hibiscus grandiflorus ancestry. Some Hibiscus breeders were very secretive about their breeding strategies or used open pollination, so we don’t know the full ancestry of many of our popular hardy Hibiscus.

To the best of my knowledge, with the possible exception of Moy Grande, no one has attempted to breed hardy Hibiscus for fragrance and/or night blooming characteristics. Night blooming also equates to extended bloom times. This could open new areas of breeding opportunity for hardy Hibiscus.

So please smell your hardy Hibiscus and report your findings here.

Mike

This is a photo of my Moy Grande taken yesterday. I will give it a smell tomorrow and let you know. Sharon

Well Michael, I gave Moy Grande a big smell and I did not smell anything. But there was a very pleasant scent in the air, and I could not determine from where it was coming. Maybe the blooms smell before they open.

This one that is blooming today.

Sharon,

The picture you posted looks like Hibiscus Kopper King. Were you sniffing Hibiscus Kopper King or Hibiscus Moy Grande?

Mike

I was sniffing Moy Grande. Kopper King is in the front landscape. Moy Grande is in the back near the Koi pond.

Actually I sniffed both.

What are you doing up so late?

For a beginner to hibiscus, could someone please explain what you mean by 'hardy?' I'm in zone 9b,
how would one left unprotected from light frost handle? What would happen to it?

Hardy hibiscus can usually handle not only light frost but depending on its hardiness, quite a bit of cold. This is in contrast to Tropical Hibiscus, that usually can't handle frosts. In Zone 9b, the Hardy ones would do fine. The Tropical Hibs in your zone may need some protection during the light frosts, but after I had a bunch killed during an unusually cold winter, I grow mine in pots only. I am in Zone 9 also.

Hope this helps.

Let me add one point to MajiA excellent explanation. Many hardy Hibiscus can not only survive extreme cold, they require a cold period to remain healthy. The University of Florida has done quite a bit of work on hardy Hibiscus suitable for central and southern Florida. The following reports may be of interest to GD members in Florida.

Hardy Hibiscus for Florida Landscapes
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ep245

Warm Climate Production Guidelines for Hardy Hibiscus
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ep249

Last winter, as snowstorms raged and there was three to four foot of snow on the ground at any given time, I had three Lord Baltimore clones, taken from stem cuttings growing indoors under light. About once a week, on average, one of them would reward my efforts with a small 4” solid red flower. Not very big by Lord Baltimore standards, but a welcome alternative to the sea of white outside. With the return of spring, I put all three Lord Baltimore’s outside once it was safe, where they promptly proceeded to die above ground. A few weeks later, one plant started to send up new growth but the other plants remained quite dead to all appearances. I went to throw the two plants out only to discover that they had very healthy root systems which were still green. I repotted the two Hibiscus but they have still not started to grow. For the next step, I will need a plausible explanation as to why two apparently dead Hibiscus are in my wife’s refrigerator.

The point of this little story is that not only can hardy Hibiscus survive the cold, they need the cold to remain healthy.

Mike

I have how had several Hibiscus Moy Grande bloom and I was unable to detect any fragrance on the flowers. One flower was cut, placed in water and brought into the house and I was still unable to detect any fragrance. I will now have to wait until the Hibiscus grandiflorus start blooming in August.

Mike

This was a surprise I took this morning. Re-bloom iris and hardy hibiscus.

Forgot to post photo. Moy Grande and canna in the back ground.

This is Pink Elephant. In total muted shade. Looks at the buds on that stalk. I forgot to smell it. I will tomorrow.

That does help MajiA. Thank you. Also, thank you Michael_Ronayne. I still hae another question. If I remember correctly,
you can tell the difference between hardy and tropical by the leaf? Hardy is shiny, and tropical is(?) what? IS that right,
or are there other ways for one to differentiate?

Passionflowerz,

As a general rule Hibiscus rosa-sinensis have shiny leaves. Must hardy Hibiscus have fuzzy or pubescent leaves and quite a few tropical Hibiscus species also have fuzzy leaves. This year I started growing the hardy Hibiscus Annie J. Hemming (PP835) which was patented in 1947 and has shiny leaves. The breeder Ernest Hemming didn’t like fuzzy leaves and worked to eliminate them. It was Ernest Hemming who created the first hardy Hibiscus in 1907 which were known as Meehan’s Mallow Marvels.

If you go into a garden center and see a Hibiscus with shiny leaves in is most likely the tropical Hibiscus rosa-sinensis. If you see a Hibiscus with fuzzy or pubescent leaves it is most likely a hardy Hibiscus. I have tropical Hibiscus in my garden which are more fuzzy then most hardy Hibiscus.

Just remember that there are always exceptions!

Mike


This message was edited Jul 31, 2011 10:14 PM

TY again. So I really need to 'know my stuff' like you folks do. Is there any other threads, reference
books, or other reading material that could tell me more about the hardy cultivars? Thanks

Passionflowerz,

The best book for a comparison of hardy and tropical Hibiscus, which I can personally recommend, is this one:

Hibiscus: Hardy and Tropical Plants for the Garden
http://davesgarden.com/products/gbw/c/1809/
By Barbara Perry Lawton
Publish date: September 2004
Published by: Timber Press
ISBN Number: 088192654X

Please use the link in the Garden Bookworm as it financially supports Dave’s Garden and links to the cheapest book prices in Amazon. I use this book constantly as a reference source. Many of the paper documents, sighted in the 2004 book, are now available online and this book as a useful index into the Google search engine. Snippet views of this book are available in Amazon and Google Books.

Mike

Thank you Michael, I'll go see that link right now. I really learned a lot from
this thread. :)

Can anyone tell me what nocturnal beasty is skeletonizing my hardy hibiscus and Hollyhocks. Not JB, they eat during the day. I don't see anything on them at all. Malva Sylvestrus is not touched.
Herman

I am happy to report that Hibiscus grandiflorus has a deistically musky fragrance but it is not a small which most people would find interesting. My Hibiscus grandiflorus began blooming the second week in August and it was not uncommon that plant, which stands over 7 feet tall with four thick stems, produced 8 to 10 new flowers every night as long as the temperatures remained high. The flower buds would not open until sunset, at which time the musky fragrance was most noticeable. During the night the H. grandiflorus flower is opened wide. By morning the flowers has partially closed to the trumpet configuration we see during the day. The attached photograph was taken at night using a flash; the flower is pinker then the picture would indicate.

I now understand why no one is breeding hardy Hibiscus for fragrance; there would be no commercial market except for people who are interested in attracting insects and hummingbirds to their garden. Insects are another story, by the end of August there was a small black fly, which superficially resembles a small fruit fly with black eyes. It was not uncommon to find these flies swarming over the flower by day and night, until the weather turned cooler at which time they disappeared. Several forms of bees and wasps also found H. grandiflorus highly attractive. My usual New Jersey nemesis Althaeus hibisci (AKA Hibiscus Beetle) which loves H. moscheutos, ignored H. grandiflorus completely.

I was not able to detect any fragrance in Hibiscus Moy Grande. A friend who is also growing both H. grandiflorus and Moy Grande, informed me that he detected a similar but slight fragrance in Moy Grande but you have to smell it just as the flower opens. I will revisit Moy Grande next year. The problem could also be my aging sniffer!

I am working on a number of H. grandiflorus hybrids including a backcross to Moy Grande using Moy Grande pollen. I am looking forward to the results of these crosses, assuming that any are successful.

Mike