How are your hardy Hibiscuses this year?

the prestige, Great info! Thanks.
Barb

Marie,

When I drive in the costal regions of Maryland and Delaware, I am struck by how plentiful the populations of Hibiscus moscheutos are. By comparison, in New Jersey I have to be on the lookout for a flash of white or pink which may identify the hiding place of a few Hibiscus moscheutos refugees. That was not always the case. During the first and second decades of the last century Prof. John W. Harshberger, of the University of Pennsylvania, documented the seaside and marsh plant populations of New Jersey with loving attention given to the Hibiscus moscheutos societies of New Jersey, as demonstrated in the following paper.

An Ecological Study of the New Jersey Strand Flora
By John W. Harshberger
Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia
Vol. 52, (1900), pp. 623-671
http://books.google.com/books?id=UvgbAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA623
http://www.jstor.org/pss/4062679

“Hibiscus moscheutos L. forms societies over extensive areas to the exclusion of most other plants. This plant grows abundantly at Seaside Park, on the west side of the railroad at Fourteenth Avenue, covering several acres, and when in full flower is a remarkable sight worth a long journey to see. The large bell shaped flowers, three and four inches across, are of a bright pink or white color, through albinism. The plants grow so thickly that at a distance the meadows seem one mass of color, and this predominance is due to the large number of seeds produced.”

I have only found one 1919 paper where Prof. Harshberger published photographs New Jersey’s Hibiscus moscheutos societies.

The Vegetation of the Hackensack Marsh: A Typical American Fen
By John W. Harshberger and Vincent G. Burns
Transactions of the Wagner Free Institute of Science of Philadelphia,
Volumes 9, May 1919
http://books.google.com/books?id=wz8_AAAAYAAJ&pg=PR121

Attached are two photographs of Hibiscus moscheutos societies from that paper taken in 1916 along the Belleville Turnpike in Kearny New Jersey as it crosses the Hackensack Marsh. The location where the two photographs were taken are 7.5 and 6.1 miles respectively from Times Square in New York City and 3 and 4 miles from my home.

To the best of my knowledge there are no surviving native populations of Hibiscus moscheutos in the Hackensack Marsh which is now know are the New Jersey Meadowlands. There are several restored nature parks with Hibiscus plantings but the restorers didn’t do their homework and used the wrong non-native species of Hibiscus. During the past 100 years, something terrible happened to Hibiscus moscheutos societies in New Jersey and I am still not sure what it was; but, I have some ideas.

Mike


This message was edited Aug 22, 2012 11:56 AM

Thanks again Mike for more great information. Mine have been putting on a show for over a month and still going. They just love our heat and they are automatically irrigated because they are water hogs. But I conserve in other way not to use to much water.

Photo is Turn of the Century.

Hi, Clarksville Gardener - greetings from nearby Houston County. Are y'all still having to ration water?

This three-year-old plant is still getting started.

The swamp mallow hibiscus out on Kentucky Lake bloomed two months late this year, but are going strong right now. I will try to get a picture of them.

Hi Rebecca -- No, we only had a voluntary conservation for a little while but it rained so much (10+ inches here) that it caught us up from any drought. I haven't even had to hand-water much. We only had about a month of really hot and dry weather. :)

Love the hibiscus picture(s) (everyone)! More, please.