Hardy Hibiscus from seed.

I got atotal of three plants from seed that a DG member sent me a while back. This is my first bloom.

Do you have the name of the hibiscus in pic?Looks a lot like okra.Mike

Or Abelmoschus manihot, closely related to okra and commonly grown as an ornamental.

So beautiful! I will have to seek these out.Mike

If it is okra or A. manihot it's not actually very hardy, A. manihot is listed in PF as hardy to zone 8, but I grew it one year and it behaved like an annual, and I think okra is also generally grown as an annual.

No I do not know, she just had them marked Hardy Hibiscus. I was hoping someone could help me out with the ID.

It really looks a lot like Abelmoschus manihot to me, which will not be hardy in your area (although you should be able to collect seeds and grow it again each year). "Hardy Hibiscus" is typically used to refer to Hibiscus moscheutos, which to the best of my knowledge does not come in yellow (typical colors are shades of white, pink, red). The flower shape is similar to yours but the leaves and the flower color are wrong so it really can't be that one. (yours also does not look like H. syriacus or H. coccineus which are the other two species I'm aware of that are hardy in zone 6)

The plant looks like "hardy" hibiscus, based on the flower.It will probably be a prenniel in my zone 7, like the rest of Hibiscus I grow.Both H.syriacus, and H. coccineus.I will try this one too.Mike

Thanks all. Dont know if I will have enough of nice weather to get seed or not.
I think I have one more getting ready to bloom, dont know what it will
be. I think the foliage is the same on all three. Raining , I cant go out and check.

This might sound like a dumb question, but do tropical hibiscus have fertal seed?If so, they would have to be in zone 9, or 10, wright? Mike

It depends on the cultivar--some of them I think are more likely to produce viable seed than others. They won't come true from seed though but it can be a fun experiment to grow them and see what they do look like. And yes, they need to be in zone 9 or 10--maybe if you're in 8b and have mild winters they could make it too, but in 7b you'd have to bring them in or put them in a greenhouse for the winter. Honestly even here I put mine in a greenhouse, otherwise they tend to lose their leaves and take forever to get going again in the spring.

Thanks all. I believe it is A. Manihot. I just came in from staking 1 of mine up, we had wind and rain and it went over. The stem is full of small spines.

I was really pleased, I thought I had something that would come back next yr. I will not bother with them again, I mess with Brugs and that is enough of a pain.LOL

I think they start pretty easily from seed if you want it again--I don't think they're nearly as much trouble as brugs!

An interesting site for A. manihot:

http://www.hibiscus.org/species/amanihot.php