Since I am unabashedly lazy, and
want a planting that will live on it’s own, I wanted to get wild
specimens or very nearly so. However, due to the perversity
mentioned earlier, I am not content to settle for the plain-Jane white
Hibiscus that you commonly find growing wild, and I was also not so
thrilled by such cultivars as the hybrid “Disco Belle” a crimson floozy
if I’ve ever seen one.
No, I wanted the rarer blossom, the
soft pink that occurs infrequently on the periphery of an otherwise
white clump of mallow, a native southern belle of extraordinary beauty.
Since I’ve always had reason to drive around my state quite a bit, I was
aware of two such instances of pink blossoms developing in a white
group. Both were about seventy miles from my home, but in
different directions.
Should you find yourself in a
similar situation, I recommend that you contact the County Collector’s
Office and get the address of the landowner so you can write him a nice
letter asking permission to dig up one of the twelve million hibiscus
plants growing around his abandoned pond.
That however, isn’t what I did, What
I did was just go there in my pickup with a spade fork, remove one of
the pinker specimens and leave as quickly as possible.
Now the world knows.
That’s
been about eight years ago. Since then, one of the specimens has
proven to be much more robust, and pinker, than the other, and I suspect
this huskier version comes from a cultivated line. It spun off a
third clump which had very pale white flowers the first year, but was a
deep and satisfying pink thereafter.
Two years ago I made the first root
division, which was successful and this past year I’ve done several
more, so I’m hoping to see a much larger area in bloom this year than
last.
I’ll update this article when I have
the photos.
|
Hibiscus
moscheutos,
also known
as Mallow, Marsh Mallow, Sea Hollyhock, Water Mallow, Mallow Rose,
Swamp Rose Mallow, Mallow, Perennial Hibiscus, Common Rose Mallow,
Crimson-eyed Rose Mallow, Rose Mallow, Rose-Mallow, Rosemallow, Wild
Cotton, Dinnerplate Hibiscus, or Frisbee Hibiscus |
