Just a few to show. The rain here the last couple of days was much needed. The high winds and hail we can do without. It's sunny in the morning and all hail breaks loose in the afternoon's. Hope it's not a sign of things to come this season!!!
First up "Creole Lady"
Chartruse Rose Hanging Basket
Funny Voodoo
Here is one called Mauvelous but the name was already taken by someone in florida so I'm not sure what it's referred to now. Maybe Barry's Mauvelous????
Hot Bikini
an unusual Sweet Pink
Curly Top
Molten Lava
Erin Rachael
This one I have no Idea
Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. I love the picture with the multiple blooms on it.
you have some absolutely beautiful hibiscus. Do you hybridize them yourself? Wish we could get those different ones out here. I would never have thought of growing one in a hanging basket! Are there particular ones best suited to a basket like that? I would love to grow one or two that way! That one is stunning!
Wonderful beautiful blooms, Robert!!! Just love your CR in the basket. Maybe I should put mine into a basket too?? I think she'd look pretty with my Evangeline and Wild at Heart already in baskets...
Curly Top is looking great, and I can hardly wait now until my Funny Voodoo blooms!!! I'm so happy it's Spring now, so maybe my babies will start looking like this before too long! Who needs food and utilities when you can have new hibiscus instead, lol (says the addict)...If I don't stop buying plants you guys are going to be seeing me on A&E's (tv) "Intervention" ;-)
To everyone else: I just got my "first" (lol) shipment of 09 from Robert, and as another posted already said, the quality is SO perfect and the packaging is so terrific not even a leaf is destroyed. He sells terrific plants!!!!
karen
Hi everyone,
Thanks Flachick I'll do my best to show the bush from now on ;-)
Thanks Karen,
Im glad to see your plants got their in good shape. I think a truck would have to run over them to do any real damage LOL Hope they produce for you real soon!!! Funny Voodoo is a strange one, Sometimes more green tones and sometimes gold. Depends on her mood. But we like the odd ;-) BTW Your gonna LOVE Bayou Rose. I've had a few blooms and they are beautiful!!! Several buds are on her now.
Thanks Lhasalover,
We do hybridize and have a few crosses that have bloomed. We lost many during ike. BTW I go to Midland about every 5 weeks or so. I have relatives that grow these beauties there. Yep they will grow. You just have to create the climate since its so dry and keeping them in pots helps out. They were even blooming in the garage over the winter without any special attention but water every 3 weeks or so. I love going to Taco Villa there in midland. They have some beautiful hardy's there landscaping the building and I got some seeds last september. I planted them 2 weeks ago and they are already 3" tall. Look at lowes for some of the tropicals and hybrids. Last year Midland had some Rum Runners, Amazon Queen and others there that are beauties. Maybe they will have them again. If not there is always mail order for the addiction (lol)
Everyone Take Care,
Robert
My two bloomed in the potting shed all winter long...it was nice to have it freezing outside and look out my window to see a hibiscus bloom! I have learned that mine love the north side of my house.. grow and bloom well all summer in pots. I haunt home depot and watch for anything other than the plain orange, yellow or pink that I already have. My big pot actually started out with 3 different plants. It now has two colors growing in it.. yellow and orange. They co-habitate very well after 5 years.
This is them together last year right after being repotted. They never skipped a beat... never knew anything happened!
This message was edited Mar 28, 2009 6:42 PM
Hi Lhasalover,
Beautiful Plants!!! It's kinda cold there now. Your much colder than us. Did you get any of that snow that was pushing in? In Midland I saw that Lowes had a better selection than HD. Dont know how it is in odessa. Of course we went to the mall in odessa and I hit Lowes in November to see if they had anything on the bargin shelves and they did'nt. It's bad when your almost 700 miles from home looking for hibiscus LOL
Robert
If you hit the Odessa Lowes in November.. you hit it right after it opened.. no bargain shelves there then... ... and yes, very bad of you looking for hibiscus 700 miles from YOUR home where you can grow such a beautiful variety of them! ... shame on you! LOL You should be bringing them up here when you visit so we can be spreading that variety to this area.
We got down to 30 two nights in a row.. no moisture though. Tonight is going to be a bit better... 35 .. tomorrow ... 80 and the plants go back outside... again. Lows more like the 40's or higher after tonight. My plants stay up against the house so the warm brick walls protect them at night against most unexpected cooler temps this time of the year. My little pink one I bought last year as a 4" pot is now about 2 1/2 ft tall and has 4 open blooms in the garage.. it is the one I could see blooming all winter out the window when I am at the computer. I had it sitting on a shelf in the potting shed. It would be bigger but I was lazy and did not repot it until it just begged me near the end of last summer.
Those in the pots are just beautiful. I think I may pot 2 of the small plants that I have coming in pots and put them on my back porch. Is there any special care you need to give them in pots? I assume they need watering and fertilizing more frequently. Those 2 different hibbies in that pot are lovely.
I think I'm in luv w/ "Molten Lava".
Here is my Voodoo Queen from Robert. The bloom is a little faded but in my garden seems like "maiden bloom" is always kinda shy, lol.
This message was edited Mar 29, 2009 8:48 PM
Hey Vossner - Voodoo Queen is looking good!! Molten Lava is a great little bloomer, you would just love it!
Fla_Chick - I grow all of my 200+ hibiscus in pots. Yes, they take a little more work with extra watering, but here in So Cal, they seem to thrive, except during winter :-(
Since I started adding the polymer crystals to my pots, my hibiscus do a lot better. I was having to water that big one 3 times a day in the hottest part of the summer .. it was a pain.. now I can go to every other day when I have to.. even go out of town at times without worrying that it will die. Our extremly low humidity levels daily below 10% really suck the moisture out of the plants. They must have available moisture when they get this large in pots or they wilt daily.
Why do you put them in pots instead of inground?
200 hibiscus in pots??? I would love to see a picture of them!
Unless they are super large (and there are three like that at my ex-husband's house) they seem to take less of a beating in pots. Plus, it makes them more portable - although I've gotta say, when it came to move them in November 2008, plus numerous brugs, plumies, daylilies, etc. also in pots, I think the movers wanted to kill me. I took all of the semi-small ones myself in my car - and it was exhausting! I really like the house I'm in now though, and definitely don't plan to move again for quite a while!
I'm in the process of trying to rejuvenate them and repot now that's it spring. I'll take pics once they all "get arranged" - they are all colorful ceramic pots...
Great photos Robert. You captured the colors perfectly. Personally I keep my favorites in pots in the back inside the pool screening. Not as much wind damage there, few to no pest problems and easy to view from the comfort of the couch.
Jon
I'm getting back into hibiscus (tropical) after having some gigantic "plain ols'" freeze back a few years back. They were 10-12' tall and planted in the ground. It was horrible to lose those big plants. This time I'm going w/4 I picked up at HGC - don't know the names right off hand as they are out in the rain and wind and I'm not and the tags are w/them. I plan to put these in pots in close proximity to some leggy old oleanders that only bloom once a year and aren't that pretty but make a good screen. The greenery on the oleanders starts about 6-7' from the ground so all we see from our game room is stems - trees knees - not pretty. I was wondering how big a pot I should go with for these hibiscus. They are presently in 3 gal. pots (the ads say) and look really healthy and are blooming so I don't think I will have any trouble w/them if I can give them a running start this spring. These bushes are not any really "fine" hibs - just pretty.
Thanks for your help.
Ann
Hi Ann,
5 gallon pots would be recommended but I've bumped 10" to 12" pots up to 10 gallon and even 15 gallon with no problem. They kept growing and blooming. Dont break up the root ball when you re-pot. But again the recommended is 1 pot size up to establish new roots in a more compact environment. Be sure the new pot DRAINS WELL. Hope this helps.
Good Luck,
Robert
Thanks, Robert. I've been looking at some of your pictures and I have yet to get out into the back yard to copy the tags on the hibs. Yesterday I did get out there - I don't walk too well and the turf is up/down/uneven - because one of the hibs had bloomed and it looked rather strange to me. Indeed it was! Very large and not a run of the mill that I was expecting. (Shows what you can get at HGC) Several of the hibs were in green buckets while only 2 were in black. The green bucketed ones have tags and I need to get out there and get all the info and then I'll get back to you and ask more questions, if y'all don't mind. That bloom did not close up overnight which I am also not used to.
Ann
I finally got out to re-view the hibs and learned a lot! Those in the green pots are Hines Bahama Bay series. The one tag I took off the plant (after making sure that the information I needed was still w/the plant) states that this particular plant "Snowfire displays large glowing red-orange flowers w/random white "snowflakes" all summer long. Bred exclusively for Hines Nurseries by Barry Schlueter. To 8' tall, 4' wide" etc, etc. Hardiness 10." Well, I'm in z8b so I'll be doing some covering and heating come the wintertime. I also have 2 other Bahama Bays: Amazon Queen (orange + other indeterminate colors) and this is the one that bloomed yesterday and is still blooming today. The other is Goin' Steady (a med. pink w/a white edge but more exotic than my description. This one has 2 buds ready to open and I am so looking forward to that.
I was thinking that maybe someone could point me in the direction of something on Barry Schlueter and his work w/Hines/on his own/whatever. Also, I'm clueless as to what is with the hibs that bloom for more than one day. There's a lot I have missed in the last 3 years when I was ignoring hibiscuses.
Thanks for your tolerance of my ignorance and for your help.
Ann
Some cultivars tend to have longer lasting blooms, but a lot of it is temperature--in the heat of summer most will only stay open for a day but in cooler weather I've had a lot of them stay open for several days.
Here's Barry's website if you want to learn more about him: http://www.barryschlueter.com/
Thanks Jon,
Your plan from the couch sounds like a good plan!!!
Hi Ann,
Basically the cool temps are helping the hibs stay open longer ans liz said. Enjoy them while you can and ask anything you need to know. There are alot of very knowledgeable people that can answer about anything.
Robert
Thanks to all of you! I have been reading what I could about Barry and all his work. I thought his name seemed familiar and I guess because he's been here in Houston so much and I am a native Houstonian of many years.
The reason I am asking so many questions is because when I was growing hibiscus they were all red, yellow, orange, pink or doubles of the same colors and white, planted in the ground and while colorful were not so "exotic" as what I'm coming across now. And NEVER did a blossom last more than 1 day. These blossoms I'm coming across remind me of the pictures I've seen of the Cajun series with colors never dreamed of. You can tell I'm centuries older than most of you LOL. Hibiscuses were just everyday plants like any other shrub w/blooms. By the way, I got my hibs at Houston Garden Center where they are having some good sales and some coupons w/good savings. The price on the stickers for these hibs is $19+change and they are on sale for $12.00 plus because one of my daughters and I went together to buy a few plants we got $20 off. I'm thinking that I would like to go back and get a few more - I have some coupons left - after I find out the names of some more of the Bahama Bays.
Ann
Well, we went back to HGC today and got $50 off our purchases. We bought a lot more than the hibs as you might have guessed. We found 2 more of the Bahama Bay series there and apparently that's all they had of that series. I would make a good salesperson I think as I sold my DD on buying 2 that I had and she didn't. Maybe I'll have one child that will follow in my footsteps and become a gardener. She doesn't mind getting her hands dirty and really enjoys it, actually. Ya have to if you're going to garden and I've had dirty hands for over 70 yrs.
Ann
Ann, it sounds like you bought enough plants to fill the car up and will have lots of things to look at around your yard this summer season. Many of us would probably make good salespeople at garden centers with our knowledge I would guess. Hopefully your daughter will follow your footsteps and take a liking to gardening. I took an interest in it about 3 years ago and my mom's thrilled about it. It gives us even more to talk about on the phone and I love helping mom and dad out when it comes to picking out and planting the new things when I'm up North for a visit.
Jon
