Black Dragon

Bloomed today. So beautiful I brought it in and put into a vase :)

outside close-up

Stunning pictures!!

Great close up!

Wow....I'm getting excited all over again. That is one gorgeous bloom.

I'm such a Black Dragon piggy that I've got two - one in the ground and one in a pot! Probably my most photographed hibiscus :-)

I'm a piggy too. but, both are in the ground, and I did a cutting from one, to eventually go into patio pots :)

LOL, glad to know I'm not the only piggy ;-)

I'm hoping to be able to go to the HVH open house this Saturday; my mom really wants a Black Dragon and they may have a nice large one.

ohhhh ohhhh ohhhhh. I need that!

- Nancy

I had to come back and look again. Had a chat with mine today. It has two months to bloom and it better get moving. :) Black Dragon is absolutely gorgeous.

Did it answer you????? LOL

That flower really has the WOW power.

In my experience, Black Dragon is a kinda slow grower, but once it gets going, it puts out tons of beautiful blooms. Yesterday, I had both Black Dragon and Dragon's Breath blooming together - just stunning!

No, it didn't talk back, but Mother Nature must have heard me and tried to help out last night with some much needed rain.

Well after you guys in Iowa and Texas finish with the rain, can you direct it over to Southern California? We've had a record low rain year with no end of drought in sight :-(

What looked like rain has now turned into a possible seven days without moisture. Maybe things will change. Wish I had some to send to you, but at this time of the year, we usually get ours from Minnesota to Texas and back west. Might be hard to get a weather system to head your way from Iowa. You do a great job of growing hibiscus without natural rainfall.

That's because I'm a slave to my hose!! Hopefully I'll do as good once I go back to work :-)

come to my house. I will GLADLY give you some water!

Cat, are you being rained upon too much now? I thought for a while your state was very dry. It sure would be nice if the rain was disbursed equally according to need with everyone taking some of the extra. I would hate to live in the areas of Texas that have been hit so hard this year.

Karen, I've been a slave to the hose for so long that I don't even think about having to water....I just walk out the door and it gets done. We got a little rain last night and it felt strange to not have to water this morning...but me and the hose were back on schedule tonight.

Too much rain is an understatement. I posted pics of my backyard, 4 hours ago, under the thread

"I can't stand these rains anymore!".

What was once an area where my garden variety hibs are growing, has now become a pond that is 8" to 1' deep!

My entire back yard is either a newly formed pond, or, a total mud slush!

I spent a good part of the afternoon, trying to save some of my hib babies, by transplanting to a safer area or transplanting back to pots.

Thank goodness my front yard is fine. May have to replant everything to the front of the house.

Seems like nobody this year has the right amount of rain--everyone's either in a drought or they're drowning, very weird weather.

Cat, Your black dragon is beautiful. I saw a sample of Black Dragon at HVH today and I really wanted one, but they didn't have any for sale. Cindy (HVH) mentioned that BD is "hard to grow".

Other than it being slow to start, what is your experience with growning black dragon? Is this one that I should wait to purchase after I've had more experience with hibiscus?

Hi TL,
I've found her to be a fairly fast grower. When I got my balck dragons in May, they were in 4" pots. One is now in a 20" pot and the other is in a 10" pot. They are very particular about the amount of water they receive. They don't want as much as the rest of the hibiscus, so I only water them once every three days, whereas, I water the other hibs everyday, or the maximum, every two days.

Good to know that Cat!!!

I am sad now for Black Dragon was the last hibiscus I bought from David!!

But it doesn't have to be the last--he's still open for another month! LOL I actually went on his website and ordered 2 more when I saw his message that he was closing, and if I know myself I'll probably end up getting a few more before September's over!

Thanks cat. We never get rain so I should be able to do that. Who is David if you don't mind? Is that somewhere I should look for Black Dragon?

David owns A Touch of the Tropics (but he's closing next month, so hurry up and order!) He either doesn't have it or it's out of stock, Hibiscus Place is the only place I was able to find it in stock recently.

Cat, that bloom is gorgeous. You should put it into the plant files. There are no photos in there for this one.

Molly
:^)))

Oh Liz, I would love to buy more but too late in the season for me. I kill more than I keep alive over winter.

Cat4gp, you're giving me hibiscus envy. Gawd, how beautiful.
Amarantha, I was born in the city where you live. And I would be a slave to my hose here, except that I installed driplines everywhere. We seem to be in a perpetual drought. Pine bark beetle is invading our forests.

Kell--you should try getting yourself one of those really cheapo plastic greenhouse things, you can get them for a lot cheaper than a real greenhouse and it might be just enough to protect your things for you. I think some brand names are "Grow House" and "Flower House", they come in a few different sizes depending on how many plants you have, and they're covered with just flexible plastic rather than the rigid polycarbonate that they make real greenhouses from.

My husband builds a big hoophouse every winter Liz. He has it up to 12 feet high. LOL. Last year we even had heat in it. The hibiscus still hate it though I didn't bring all of them in. Some made it. This year I will have to watch what I am doing with them. Maybe I am too afraid to water them much and kill them that way. I am so used to them dying in winter, I kind of ignore them.

It might be the watering then, I don't water them as often as I do during the summer obviously, but I don't let them get too dry either.

Black dragon is such a nice deep color. Can anyone tell me if the flowers fade in bright sun?

Or perhaps they just hate me in winter!!!

It doesn't fade in bright sun, and trust me, this past month we have had our share of bright sun. But it also doesn't bloom very often in this hot, hot, weather :(

I watered all mine, everyday, all season. I just put less water in each pot.