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Hidden Valley Hibiscus
Growers & Hybridizers of Exotic, Tropical Hibiscus
Volume 18, Issue 6
June 2017


News from Hidden Valley Hibiscus


Exotic Hibiscus 'Got Your Back'



'Daisy Mae'


'Party Girl'


'Midnight Tryst'

Happy Summer to all our Fellow Hibiscus Lovers!

Summer is just around the corner. Hibiscus are bursting into bloom in all but the southernmost parts of the planet, creating spectacular displays of every color, and making us smile with their beauty!

This month we are adding Uruguay to our Worldwide Hibiscus Gardens. Constantino in Montevideo is sharing his lush and natural tropical hibiscus garden with us from far into the southern hemisphere. It is nearly impossible to import exotic hibiscus into Uruguay, so Constantino has had to hybridize his own exotics, which he is sharing with us this month. He has some real beauties, which we hope someday to be able to sell at HVH.

We get asked so frequently what our favorite hibiscus are, that we thought from time to time we would share our Greenhouse Faves of the Month. Some hibiscus leap out at us day after day, so this month we are sharing two of those spectacular bloomers.

And of course, at the bottom of the newsletter, don't miss our newest Seedling of the Month. This one is so new that we barely know anything about it. But it is a giant flower that is a definite showstopper! Enjoy!

Happy summer to all!

Charles & Cindy Black



'Humongous'


'Summer Fun'


'Mariachi'



 

Hibiscus Gardens Around the World

Montevideo, Uruguay



Exotic Hibiscus 'Fifth Dimension' growing in
Constantino's garden in Uruguay

Welcome to Montevideo, Uruguay, the home of Constantino, nestled on the Atlantic Ocean, next to Argentina and just beneath Brazil. Montevideo has the tropical climate of South America, but because it is so far south and on the Atlantic, it has more extreme weather, with storms, high winds, and freezes at times. It is always humid, which hibiscus love, of course! But the winds can be so sudden and strong that they snap off mature hibiscus plants. So Constantino's garden has become something of a testing ground for hibiscus.


Constantino


Uruguay's rainfall is perfect for hibiscus! They grow huge in Constantino's luxuriantly beautiful garden.

Rainfall in Montevideo is perfect! Average rainfall is 37" (93 cm) per year, but it is distributed evenly throughout the year. So Constantino's garden stays green and lush, which hibiscus love.



The 3 hibiscus at left are Constantino's hybrid, 'Maggie's Golden Sunset'
At bottom right is imported hibiscus 'Grand Slam'


'Uruguayan King's Crown'

'Uruguayan Neon Spell Shot'

The importation requirements of Uruguay make it functionally impossible to import hibiscus from other countries, so Constantino has had to rely on grafting small bits of exotic hibiscus wood from other countries that he could manage to get his hands on, coupled with doing his own hybridizing. He has created some beautiful hybrids, as you can see in these photos! All the "Uruguay" hibiscus on this page, plus many more, are Constantino's hybrids.



'Uruguayan Old Raisin'

'Uruguayan Creme Perfection'


'Uruguay Midnight Red Purple'

'Uruguay Magenta Borravino'


A giant 'Albo Lacinatus' growing in Constantino's garden


'Tahitian Bronze Star'

'Herm Geller'

Constantino has two greenhouses that he uses for hybridizing and to give his seedlings a good start. Montevideo does sometimes gets frost in the winter, so his greenhouse helps get his young plants through their first winter or two.


Constantino's large greenhouse


'Uruguayan Old Liberty'

'Uruguayan Christmas Joy'

We leave you with a few more photos of Constantino's Uruguayan hibiscus hybrids. Thank you, Constantino, for sharing your beautiful hibiscus garden and all your photographs with us!



'Uruguayan Magic Spell'

'Uruguayan Neon Spring Joy'



 

Greenhouse Faves of the Month

What's Catching our Eye in the Greenhouse Right Now?

We are often asked, "What are your favorite blooms in the HVH greenhouse?" With literally hundreds of flowers opening every day, there is a lot to choose from! Everybody has their favorites and ours tend to change from week to week and year to year. Even so, there are some outstanding performers that get our attention consistently. This month we are going to take a look at two varieties that have been doing especially well lately: 'Carmel Dawn' and 'Rags To Riches.' Both these varieties are highly recommended by HVH for anyone wanting strong plants that bloom like crazy with beautiful flowers.



A 3-year-old 'Carmel Dawn' blooming in a 6" pot in early June

'Carmel Dawn' is a super bloomer on a spectacular bush! Its mother, 'Dreamscape' contributed a strong stout bush and well-formed flowers with yellow pigments. Father 'Mountain Air' has a wilder, less desirable bush, but it blooms prolifically with large, beautiful flowers in multiple shades of purple, pink, and white. We got several seedlings from this cross, but most had terrible bushes and had to be thrown away. 'Carmel Dawn' was one that inherited only the best traits of both parents. It grows vigorously and fast, with exceptionally strong branches that flower all the time. To get the most out of this variety it is important to prune it aggressively when it is developing because of how fast it grows. This makes it grow many branches very quickly, and as we know, the more branches a hibiscus has, the more it blooms. Multiple flowers in the same day are very common with 'Carmel Dawn.'

The above photo shows a 3-year-old Carmel Dawn in a 6" pot that has developed multiple branches and is blooming constantly. You can see both the opening colors (top and bottom at right) and the second day colors (left and right center) of the blooms. Once 'Carmel Dawn' starts blooming, it pops out new flowers constantly with many different looks that vary with the weather and season.



A 2-year-old 'Rags to Riches' blooming in a 6" pot

'Rags To Riches' has one quality that everyone loves - it blooms like crazy! Even small bushes often produce multiple flowers every day during the warm season. It comes from an excellent mother, 'Saffron,' which has a very strong, full bush and large, bright red-orange flowers. Father, 'Cranberry Muffin,' gave genes for a large flower with multiple colors and lots of yellow spots and markings. The result was a solid bush with bright red-orange flowers sprinkled liberally with yellow spots and markings. The bush naturally grows many branches with very little pruning, and each branch pops out flower after flower all through the blooming season. This is a 2-year-old 'Rags to Riches' plant blooming in a 6" pot in our greenhouse in early June.

In future months we will select and feature more HVH varieties that wow us with their performance. Stay tuned!


 



Seedling of the Month...                

              Our Newest Giant!


Seedling of the Month
Our new giant hibiscus flower, 8-10" (20-25 cm) across

Our June Seedling of the Month is a brand new, unnamed and untested seedling. We don't usually showcase brand new seedlings because we don't want to get our hopes up (or anyone else's hopes up!) until we have some idea that the new seedling will turn out to be good in all the necessary ways. But we couldn't resist with this one!

This seedling is one of our new giants, with flowers that are 8-10 inches across (20-25 cm). A quick glance at the Giants page in our hibiscus store shows how well we have developed giants with 1-2 colors, such as solid reds, or yellows, pinks, and oranges with a red eye. Over the years we have slowly developed a collection of giants with 3 colors and an occasional one with 4 colors. So imagine our excitement when this new seedling popped out its first flower with 5 fully developed colors! We finally did it!

The mother of our new seedling is 'Moonstruck,' one of our earliest giants. It can have 3-4 rings of color, but the colors tend to be brownish and subdued. So we brought in 'Simple Pleasures' as the father, which has very bright, clear rings of yellow and pink with a bright red eye. The resulting offspring was this beauty with 5 bright, clear, distinct colors: yellow, orange, blue, red, and a burgundy eye in a giant 8-10 inch single flower!

We have no idea yet of the quality of the bush for our new seedling, of how much it will bloom, of how strong and vigorous it will be, or of how well it will propagate. So we don't know if it will ever actually come to market. But both parents have beautiful bushes and are fantastic bloomers. One parent is super strong, vigorous, and easy to propagate, and the other is less vigorous, but still a good bush. So there's at least a 50% chance that this new seedling could pass our tests. Only time will tell. In the meantime, we hope you like its beautiful giant flower!