Hey Nicole,,
I am familiar with this one,, however in my more northern location it will not overwinter,tried four years finnaly gave up,,,I have used in a few plantings back east at my sils gardens,,the flowers get huge back east,, the few I have ever gotten in my gardens were a much smaller version but just as pretty,,I found these liked their moisture,, they also did alright in containers and full sun if watered frequently,,as to pests,, I never had enything other then earwigs bother it,, they chewed on the flowers ,, that could of been because it was located close to the dahlias whom they love to chew on in my area,,,
I hope you have better luck with it then I did ,, it really is a beautiful flower when it growes well,,
jwj

They are a very popular plant in the southeast US. I like them very much, but they may need some winter protection. Last year I mulched mine and they seemed to come back ok...a little slow...but are blooming now. BTW, I find there are many plants that could grow here, but nurseries don't carry them. They seem to concentrate on the popular and usual. Does anyone else find that to be the case? It seems to me nurseries in other parts of the country carry a wider variety.

Dan

I almost forgot. Japanese beetles seem to treat it as a favorite back east. Few other things seem to bother it. Lucky for us the JB's don't like it here!

I think this falls into one of those plants which enjoys the humidity back east,,a bit more then our dry heat,,

Dan,
the nursery problems, in my area it is about the same,, if you do find something differnt they ask a rediculous price for it,,Or my favorties are the store nurseries who ship in all kinds of temptations that will survive a zone 5 in indiana but not in my Montana zone 5,,so may people buy those and get quite frustrated that they die off or grow badly because of the climate differnces,,I typically start alot from seed or trades any more,,because of that reason,, and I also rely on alot of natives for my area as well,
jwj

I've grown Lord Baltimore for a number of years. Also look for Lady Baltimore and Turn of the Century. The hardy hibiscus do well for me in the Denver area. They usually bloom in August.
Karen

I live in Ontario, Canada, in zone 5, and one of my neighbours grows a rose mallow in her front yard. It faces south, and she does not seem to give it any winter protection, but it manages to survive, and bloom profusely in the summer.

I got a seed pod from this shrub, and I'd like to grow some mallows myself next year. Should I leave the seeds out in the cold for a couple of months before I germinate them? I read that they will produce flowers the first year if planted early enough in the year, and as I have just got a greenhouse I might be successful.

Margaret

Rose Mallows grow great here in Ontario, I have a garden full of them. Pink, white, pink\white marroon and yellow, all perennials. No mulch or extra care given, just like rest of flowers. Cut to ground in fall or spring.

My two are in bloom!!!! WOW~~~ what a display!!! I've NEVER seen any growing anywhere except at the nursery where I purchased mine. I went back to the same nursery yesterday to buy one in another color and they didn't have any. Now I'm thinking of trying to grow them from seed......I'd like to have a "dozen or so" more! I can't understand why something like this isn't more common? (I paid $7.50ea for mine)

Nicole, if you want to try to propigate these plants, they should be fairly easy from cuttings.
I do a related Hibiscus, Rose of Sharon, over the winter. If you are not familiar with the process, get a small jar of rooting powder from the floral section of the supermarket, take a foot long cutting about the dia of a pencil, snip of all the leaves except the top two, dip in the powder and set in a sterile mix, something like peat, perlite, etc or sand. Anywho, lots of info over on the propigation forum, I'm sure.

David52........I've tried using the rooting hormone on roses,36 of them.....all died!!! I even root tropical plants in water and once I transfer them to soil 90% of them die! I've been told only choose stems that have had blooms or only take cuttings in the Spring.......I've given up.

???????????????

Nicole, I use the powder on easy stuff like geraniums and petunias, but for the woody stem things I get a little jar of Clonex, I buy mine from Charleys greenhouse supply, they are on the web. It costs about $15. This stuff will grow roots on a nail.
For hibiscus I take my cuttings in early October when there have been a few frosts that kill off the bugs. I cut a foot long piece with a node at the bottom, about the dia of the little finger. Slice through the node with a razor blade, and brush on the clonex, stick in a moist peat perilite mix. If there is any trick it would be one of those heat mats. But you could put them on top of any warm thing like a dryer, refrigerator, and so on. Mine usually have roots within 6 weeks. Not all of course, but usually 80 percent.
I have over a hundred now in the border and they are flowering currently, they are nice. They don't seem, so far, to be much of a pest plant as reported from elsewhere in the country, I think they are marginal here so stay under control.
Good luck, Dave

It's a SUCCESS!!!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Lord Baltimore

Hi Nicole, is that one you propigated? Looks good!!

David52.......no.........that's the parent plant.......when it stops blooming I'll take cuttings and try propagating it. I also purchased a "Luna Blush" ........on sale for $3!!!! I was having trouble finding them for sale and then this one popped up!!!! :0) :0) :0) :0)

Here is a link that might be useful: Luna Blush

I have a Lord Baltimore as well as a Lady Baltimore, purchased at the end of last summer. They put on a show well into the Fall. I just cut them back last weekend. (There was green in the stems, so, my mulching helped them over the weekend). Guess I'll let them sleep till summer.

Wow, thanks to ZooHortMMM! The zoo is actually the first place i saw one of these beauties. I have a Southern Belle in my garden. It has bloomed for the past 3 seasons. But it blooms REALLY late, in fact, not until early October.

ZooHort, I have a Lord Baltimore too - just planted it last spring. I cut it down to about 8" (should I have?) and I thought it didn't survive the winter, but it just started to sprout from the base around 2 weeks ago (mid May)! I'm so glad I waited, and didn't pull the roots out, because it is a spectacular huge bright red beauty!!

One question - the branches seemed very fragile. My daughter hit it with a frisbee and a branch just 'fell' off! I then noticed that all the branches broke off very easily. Did I not water it enough? Anyone know?

I am not sure of the variety, but I have several planted that are white/pink, and red. The plants will die down to the ground in the winter, so cutting down to 8" or 1" should not matter. As others noted, they come up late. I have about 3-4" of growth on mine. I planted last year in late June and had flowers about 8" across, although my plant bible says up to 12" across!!!. They look like something that should not grow hereÂin the South or Tropics, but I did not lose any of them over the winter.

I've always had indoor hibiscus, but last fall was the first time I ever even saw the hardy ones (at the garden centre). I was so impressed by the huge showy flowers and the delicate texture of the petals that I bought three (2 dark red and one pink with a red centre). I kept thinking "but they look so tropical" all the time - never thinking they would grow up here in deepest darkest Ontario. But I see now that for the last few weeks they've been developing chunky green new stalks at the bottom and I'm happy that my patience was rewarded. (I must admit I did check this site for information after I bought them).

The only negative is that, if I remember correctly, last fall the blooms (although continually forming daily and absolutely gorgeous) didn't last more than a day or two and then they needed deadheading fast - or else the dark red blooms drooped so heavily on the stems, making my garden look more like the scene of a murder mystery, but not so much of a mystery as I was forever getting the juice of the petals on my hands, so it looked like I was the murderess.

Aside from all this macabre stuff, I can't wait till I see the crazy red things as big as 'plates' again this summer. Only now I have more perennials in my garden so it won't seem so obvious.

Has anybody got any tips for me regarding the flowers drooping or do I just have to water them more?

One of my hardy hibiscus (the one that's really bushing out now) has a kind of "oak" looking leaf. It's about 3 feet tall now and, although late to appear - late May I think I saw the first shoots - it looks like it's about to provide a good show. The other type with a more oval leaf is only about 1 foot high so I'm not sure how it will turn out.

So far in southern Ontario we've had so much rain this summer I don't think dry plants will be a problem (ref. my earlier question to the forum). These two plants of mine are dark red. I have a very pale pink one with a red eye in the back garden - along with roses. Each time I visit the garden centre my friend shows me more of these rose mallows, and it's very tempting. They remind me of wallflowers for their colours. Does anybody know if they come in other colours beside red and pink?

Hibiscus roots very easily in water. No need to spend $$$ on rooting hormones. Besides after reading the warning labels on that stuff, I'm afraid to touch it. Planted a 'Luna' last summer in a large pot on my front steps. It looked good for about a week, then dropped most of its leaves. It recovered by autumn, but did not survive the winter. Rose of Sharon grows like a weed here in Baltimore, so I'll stick with them.

If anyone is looking for these, NOW is the time of year to be getting them at local garden centers. For anyone in the Denver area, you should be able to get them at Paulino's and/or Timberline Gardens. In their catalog this year, Paulino's lists these varieties: 'Lord Baltimore', 'Lady Baltimore', 'Clown', 'Crimson Wonder', 'Fantasia', 'Kopper King', 'Moy Grande', 'Blue River II', 'Southern Belle Mix', and 'Disco Belle' in all the colors. If you stop by there, be sure to ask for a copy of their perennial catalog.

The heights of these, depending on variety, range from about 4' to 7' or more, and the flower size ranges from about 6" to a good foot in diameter. Each flower lasts only one day, but they are constantly replaced by many, many more until fall. Mine continued until almost Halloween last year. The wilting flowers will drop off by themselves in a few days, but to keep them looking neater (since there are so many flowers on established plants), I usually go around every couple days and pull dying flowers off--you don't need a scissors. If I don't have something with me to collect them in, I just toss them in a pile at the bottom of the plant and pick up the pile later. Last fall, when I was cutting them down for winter, I snipped off a whole bunch of the dry seed heads to use in dried arrangements. These are definitely NOT xeric perennials, and will require consistant watering all summer. They can be grown in wet to boggy soil, so you don't need to worry about overwatering them.

The most important thing to know about them is that they come up very, very, very late in spring! I have 3 established Disco Belle's, and they didn't appear at all until the beginning of June this year. So be sure you know where they are and just wait--and wait--and wait for them. When they do come up they grow VERY quickly!

BUT, she said with a tear in her eye, my 3 beautiful pink Disco Belle's that are supposed to get about 4' tall and are already almost 5', and just started blooming within the last 2 weeks, got TOTALLY smooshed down by the inch of rain I got yesterday in less than half an hour! I'm not really complaining since we need the rain so badly, but I sure do hope they're able to stand back up by themselves when they dry off. (It's raining again right now (Thornton), and with what I got overnight, I'm up to almost 2 inches now!. Boy, is everything ever green!)

Here's a link to the Hibiscus info at Perennials.com. They list 17 varieties, but, unfortunately, only have pictures of a few of them.

Happy gardening all,
Skybird

Here is a link that might be useful: Hibiscus at Perennials.com

I'm in Lexington KY and have had beautiful Lord Baltimores for about 6 years with no problems except for Japanese beetles loving them. They are slow to emergein the spring and I always wonder if they've failed to survive our sometimes cold winters.

This year, one is not growing well, has wilted, stunted leaves and its stems are dark red. I can't figure out what is wrong.

Can anyone suggest a problem name so I can hunt a solution, or tell me what to do?

thanks

Hi there,

I live in London, Kentucky, and I have a Lord Baltimore hardy hibiscus. I bought just one last year, and put it in a 30 - 40 gallon tub. It grew to 8' or 9' tall. Had beautiful red dinner plate blooms. The frost killed it. I cut it down to about a 2" stump. I thought it would never come back but it did. This year I got three 9' plants full of bloom right now. I have tried to propagate some cuttings. Here is my question. What do the seed pods look like, and when should I see them? Any where on line that I can see what they look like? How can I polinate the flowers myself? Any, and all help will be appreciated.

Thank you,

Bob
London, Kentucky

Hi Bob,

You shouldn't need to hand pollinate them, there should be plenty of bees around them. As soon as the flowers drop off you'll see the seed pod start to develop. Wait till it's totally brown and it "opens up" on top. There will be LOTS of round seeds--about 1/16th" diameter--that will drop out easily when they're ripe.

I'm surprised you don't have seedlings coming up around it if it bloomed last year!

The Tom Clothier germination site says:
( http://tomclothier.hort.net/page03.html#h )

Hibiscus coccineus, manihot, and moscheutos, and syriacus, Sow at 22-24ºC (71-75ºF), germ. in less than 2 weeks

You have Hibiscus moscheutos, BTW.

Linked below are pictures. The seedpods will look like the last picture on the bottom of the page (under H. syriacus), and the seeds will look like the second picture up from the bottom. Ignore the germination info at this site and go with the info I copied above. They should be really easy to start. I always have some coming up around mine every year.

Happy gardening,
Skybird

Here is a link that might be useful: Seedpods, seeds, & seedlings

Hello Skybird,

Thank you for your response. I have noticed that when my flower drops off it does leave a small pod behind that has a very small possible seed container in it. However it doesn't get to grow much as if you just slightly touch it it just falls off. Would these things have seeds in them now, or should I wait until the fall to collect the seeds?
Anywhere that I could look for more information on this plant?

Thanks again for your response.

Robert
London, Kentucky 40744

I live in New Prague, Minnesota, which is in the northern part of zone 4, and have had unfailing success with my Lord Baltimore hibiscus since I bought it back in 2000. I planted it by the southeast side of my house, and it comes up every year with no mulch, aside from the tall grass I leave uncut by it during the Winter. It is, however, the last thing to come up, sometimes not becoming noticeable until late June.

I live in Maine and bought this plant about 2 years ago. Did not think it had survived, but around July this year it put up one big thick stem. Nothing much happened and I was ignoring it; Japanese beetles really ate the leaves. Then yesterday I found the first huge and perfect big red flower, with many more buds with it. I really am amazed. It is planted on a very hot side of the house that is usually baked in the summer but covered with deep snow in the winter. This summer we have had plenty of rain. Another sign that Maine is getting warmer all the time.