{"id":2188,"date":"2017-08-21T05:07:40","date_gmt":"2017-08-21T13:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=2188"},"modified":"2017-08-21T05:10:04","modified_gmt":"2017-08-21T13:10:04","slug":"bigger-than-your-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/bigger-than-your-head\/","title":{"rendered":"Bigger Than Your Head"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Big<\/a>I saw a woman at the Farmer\u2019s Market last week with a bouquet of huge dahlias.\u00a0 They weren\u2019t quite dinner plate-size, but they would put the average butter plate to shame.\u00a0 It occurred to me then that mid-summer is no time for subtlety.\u00a0 The big, bright colors and shapes of zinnias, cannas, Mexican sunflowers and, of course, hardy hibiscus, seem much more appropriate.\u00a0 These are plants that have spent the early summer swallowing up the sun.\u00a0 In August they release all that sunshine through their large, radiant petals.<\/p>\n

My upper back garden is home to two hardy hybrid hibiscus, one with enormous red blossoms and the other with gigantic pale pink flowers accented with red \u201ceyes\u201d.\u00a0 The blooms, which open from impressive pointed buds, look like hollyhocks on steroids–and with good reason.\u00a0 Hollyhocks and hardy hybrid hibiscus are part of the large mallow or Malvaceae clan, which contains at least 95 genera.\u00a0 The basic mallow flower form, with five overlapping petals surrounding a prominent central stamen column, is easy to recognize.\u00a0 For many people, the flowers are similarly easy to love.<\/p>\n

Hardy hybrid hibiscus are as big as some shrubs, growing anywhere from three to seven feet tall and up to three feet wide.\u00a0 Compact varieties, like my \u2018Kopper King\u2019, with its red and palest-pink flowers, top out at a more manageable three to four feet tall.\u00a0 Though shrubby in stature and configuration, these hibiscus are, in fact, perennials, dying back to the ground in winter and rising again starting in mid to late spring.\u00a0 The elongated, toothed leaves alternate on the stems and can be ovoid, deltoid or somewhat lance-shaped.\u00a0 Some hybrids may have maple-like lobed leaves.<\/p>\n

But nobody buys these giant mallows for their leaves, even when those leaves are dark purple or coppery-colored, as they are on some hybrids.\u00a0 The flowers are the main attraction and sometimes they grow to 12 inches in diameter.\u00a0 Mine are not quite that big, but manage a respectable six inches wide.\u00a0 Probably if I fed my hibiscus aggressively or provided them with wetter soil, they might reward me with bigger blooms. However, since I choose not to dwell in the land of horticultural regret, I am content with the size of the flowers on my plants.<\/p>\n

Hardy hibiscus flowers last only a day or two and are not good cut flower subjects.\u00a0 Fortunately, the buds open in sequence and a mature plant can produce twenty or more huge flowers.\u00a0 You can deadhead for the sake of tidiness, but the spent flowers also fall readily from the plants.<\/p>\n

Some of the hardy hibiscus on the market are cultivated varieties of Hibiscus moschuetos or swamp mallow, a lover of wet ground native to the eastern United States and Canada.\u00a0 Relatively short of stature and magnificent of flower, \u2018Luna Red\u2019 is one of them.\u00a0 Most of the other hibiscus with super-size blooms are the result of complex breeding, sometimes involving up to four native hibiscus species.\u00a0 My \u2018Kopper King\u2019, billed by its creators as Hibiscus x moschuetos, for example, is primarily descended from swamp mallow and Hibiscus coccineus, a red-flowered species that the invaluable Hortus<\/em> notes \u201c is not hardy much north of Philadelphia\u201d.\u00a0 Clearly the moschuetos parents brought cold-tolerance into \u2018Kopper King\u2019s genetic make-up.<\/p>\n

This is not surprising, since \u2018Kopper King\u2019, more properly known as \u2018Fleming\u2019s Kopper King\u2019, was born and bred in Nebraska, a state notable for its chilly winters.<\/p>\n

And, in fact, the Fleming family of Nebraska bred many hardy hybrid hibiscus at their nursery, Fleming\u2019s Flower Fields.\u00a0 Most of the Fleming hybrids conform to the typical hardy hibiscus colorways of reds, whites and pinks, but the Flemings also ventured into yellow, with the fetching \u2018Fleming\u2019s Old Yella\u2019.<\/p>\n

Hibiscus need a sunny location, though they can make do with very light shade.\u00a0 Consistently moist soil is a \u201cmust\u201d, because the hardy, large-flowered types all hearken back to their swamp plant heritage.\u00a0 Mulch will help with moisture retention, especially in conjunction with drip irrigation.\u00a0 Though the plants look alluring to humans, they are billed as being rabbit and deer resistant.<\/p>\n

The garden and landscape possibilities abound with the swamp mallow descendants.\u00a0 Plant single specimens or small groupings for late summer color.\u00a0 The varieties with dark foliage, like magenta-flowered \u2018Eruption\u2019, or \u2018Fleming\u2019s Crown Jewels\u2019, with red and white blooms, work especially well in beds and borders, maintaining visual interest even when they are not in flower.\u00a0 If you need a temporary hedge, invest in a variety with attractive maple or oak-like leaves and plant the appropriate number of specimens after all danger of frost has passed in the spring.\u00a0 Hardy hybrid hibiscus also grow well in large pots, and their tropical looks make them excellent subjects for poolside or patio displays.\u00a0 Make sure to fertilize and water on a regular schedule, because container culture demands disciplined plant care.<\/p>\n

If you install a hardy hybrid hibiscus early this fall, remember that it will die back to the ground in winter.\u00a0 Next spring, be patient.\u00a0 The plants are very slow to emerge, but grow rapidly once they are up and out of the ground.<\/p>\n

Many retailers carry a variety or two of hardy hibiscus.\u00a0 For a broader range, go to Forestfarm at Pacifica, <\/strong>14643 Watergap Rd, Williams, OR 97544;\u00a0 (541) 846-7269; www.forestfarm.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Free paper catalog.<\/p>\n

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I saw a woman at the Farmer\u2019s Market last week with a bouquet of huge dahlias.\u00a0 They weren\u2019t quite dinner plate-size, but they would put the average butter plate to shame.\u00a0 It occurred to me then that mid-summer is no time for subtlety.\u00a0 The big, bright colors and shapes of zinnias, cannas, Mexican sunflowers and, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2,3],"tags":[1696,1698,1699,1700,1697,640,967,448,1701,1145],"class_list":["post-2188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","tag-hardy-hibiscus","tag-hibiscus-moschuetos","tag-hybrid-hibiscus","tag-large-flowers","tag-large-flowered-hibiscus","tag-mallow-family","tag-malvaceae","tag-native-plants","tag-swamp-mallow","tag-wetland-plants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2188"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2192,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188\/revisions\/2192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}