December Flower Photos of the Day

[davidwood]

Acapulco Gold Samba Dancer and Peppermint Drop today. Also a nice garden Hib from Saigon.

I am now of the view that Peppermint Drop just needs sun and lots of it, had a few weeks of cloudy overcast days and it has struggled a bit, so I can see its going to be a real star here in Vietnam cos there arent to many of them.

[Charlie]

Darren, 10 days for an open flower of Cindy's Heart (or any other variety) is probably the record. It still looks pretty good, too! Denis in Croatia reported an 8 day CH flower recently but 10 is the most I have heard. Cindy and I had a 5 day bloom in summer in full sun so this is not a winter phenom only. Of all the varieties I have grown, this one has consistently shown the longest lasting blooms.

David, that house photo in Vietnam was interesting. Nice Peppermint Drop flowers, too!

Charlie

[roadrunner]

Wow Darren I agree with Charlie, 10 days for a Cindy's Heart bloom or any hibiscus bloom is incredible. I've had a few CH last 4 days inside the house during winter. The Maui Masterpiece I posted a photo of a few days ago is still open this morning so this is day 6 for that one. The pic I posted was a 3rd day bloom. Your Prosperity continues to amaze. If I only buy one on the 30th it will be Prosperity, assuming there are some available.
I remember you mentioning that you were an amateur meteorologist a while ago, I think it was during one of those major California rain events. Are you a member of the CoCoRaHS volunteer weather network by chance?  Our recent storm did bring some good rainfall totals for a change to this corner of AZ, but we're still way below normal for the year. As usual the heavier rains missed us in town, slightly under and inch for the two days.

David that is a really great group shot. I hope my Peppermint Drop starts looking something close to yours next summer. Mine hasn't shown much white yet so I assume it isn't getting nearly enough sun.  From what I've seen so far its bush is outstanding. Oh, that yellow garden variety with the large red eye is a very showy flower.

dave

[Doll]

Darren, that is amazing that CH lasted 10 days. I think one of the reasons mine don't last more than 3 days even in the cooler weather is that I always pollinate them. But my persistence has paid off. I have 5 seed pods on my CH.

David, I love that yellow garden variety. You need to send one back to Texas with your friend when she returns after visiting you.

[helixturnhelix]

Wow Darren, i wonder how long my moms CH is lasting.  She loves that CV alot, it's perfect for her since it loves sun and has almost obnoxiously bright pink blooms.

Man peppermint drop is nice, alot like Morgan Alyssa, but with a nice bush! Looks like you finally figured out the special needs of your plants in the heat.

[davidwood]

Man peppermint drop is nice, allot like Morgan Alyssa, but with a nice bush! Looks like you finally figured out the special needs of your plants in the heat.
[/quote]
Sorry but those pics of PD could be a bit misleading, they have been cut and placed on Rainbow Sherbet for a group picture.
 If PD does have one flaw it is that the blooms sometimes face into the bush and can be difficult to see, they also tend to be a bit all over the place rather than up at the top where they are easy to see. Saying that its still young and  growing like crazy, its very compact and loves the sun, I haven't had any need to even think about pruning yet but I can see it being very large in the future.
I think a lot of the problems I had with the heat and sun was down to my inexperience and my potting mix, now I have finally sorted the mix out[took me 2 years and discovering Perlite was a godsend] they are all thriving, mainly only 1 day blooms but that's no problem, in fact it can be an advantage sometimes, I don't ever worry about cutting the blooms and placing them so they can be viewed easier.

[roadrunner]

Here are a few from this morning. Maui Masterpiece day 7 and Blonde Ambition not looking her best in this colder weather. Both relocated from the unheatable greenhouse to the unheated laundry room during this current cold spell. Cindy's Heart blooming inside the house and a portion of the collection in the south facing living room window. Newest additions are still in their 4" pots on the window sill.



dave

[roadrunner]

David my Peppermint Drop's blooms haven't had the amount of white that yours have shown but all the blooms have been well displayed on top of the bush. The first two photos are from late October when I still had my larger plants outside. The first pic is a PD bloom showing just a little white. The white pot in the group shot is PD with the same bloom showing on top. The burried bloom lower to the right is actually First Lady from the plant to the right. The third picture inside the greenhouse was taken in late November. It's not a very good pic, the PD blooms are barely visible at the top of the plant in the rear of the greenhouse. They are partially open. A First Lady bloom is visible in front and lower, looking red instead of her usual pink. My PD was a very large robust 1 gal. plant when I received it. Hopefully yours will outgrow the poor bloom placement tendency as it matures.

dave

[davidwood]

David my Peppermint Drop's blooms haven't had the amount of white that yours have shown but all the blooms have been well displayed on top of the bush. The first two photos are from late October when I still had my larger plants outside. The first pic is a PD bloom showing just a little white. The white pot in the group shot is PD with the same bloom showing on top. The buried bloom lower to the right is actually First Lady from the plant to the right. The third picture inside the greenhouse was taken in late November. It's not a very good pic, the PD blooms are barely visible at the top of the plant in the rear of the greenhouse. They are partially open. A First Lady bloom is visible in front and lower, looking red instead of her usual pink. My PD was a very large robust 1 gal. plant when I received it. Hopefully yours will outgrow the poor bloom placement tendency as it matures.

Dave

Dave I maybe have made it sound worse than it is, its only a small flaw as I have many blooms up on top, also my bush I think is a bit bigger than yours and has many branches growing on the inside, like I say its very compact so its bound to have blooms that cant be seen so easy. It does need a bit of sun on it to get the blooms open though and the more sun the better, I was beginning to notice before the rainy season came that on a blazing sunny day the red color goes more like a wine color which is nice. I just nipped out and took a quick picture in the rain.
You know sometimes I am envious of everyone getting 3 4 and 5 day blooms, but I will be happy just having the one dayers 365 days a year if it means I can leave all my cv's outside with no worry, it must be hard work and frustrating to have to bring them all in, I take my hat of to you and all who have to do that, that's true dedication to our hobby.

[farmer d]

David you make an excellent point about having blooms every day and by the way Dave (AZ) your Maui Masterpiece looks just great at day 7.  That is an amazing number of days to have a bloom!

This last few weeks the nightly temps are at highest in the low 40Fs (4C) and daytime we haven't been in the 70Fs (21C) now for a few weeks.  Result is I have buds coming out of my ears but the blooms are so painfully slow to happen.  I wonder though if this will lead to some bigger blooms again as the buds seem to be building up in size a little more each day.  Just look there are so many of them it's ridiculous.

I'm calling today as the last day for Cindy's Heart at 11 days of blooming.  Poor thing has been through two rain events including today so my hat's off to it!

Farmer D

[farmer d]

& some blooms from today...

Farmer D

[davidwood]

Rainbow Sherbert in the rain today, and my largest ever bloom, a 7 and a half inch Bridal Path, also my heavily pruned Vin Beugelois
Darren how have you got on with the bush of Vin Beugelois, I haven't half struggled, in fact 2 weeks ago I pruned it back to near nothing and started again, I have had very good success doing this in the past so I am hoping the same this time.

[Charlie]

Farmer D, you're lucky you didn't (I hope) get the hail storm we had here in the Inland Empire this afternoon.!

Charlie

[davidwood]

Well the rain has finaly stoped for the day, got a very orangy Thanksgiving and a large Cosmic Gold.

[farmer d]

Rainbow Sherbert in the rain today, and my largest ever bloom, a 7 and a half inch Bridal Path, also my heavily pruned Vin Beugelois
Darren how have you got on with the bush of Vin Beugelois, I haven't half struggled, in fact 2 weeks ago I pruned it back to near nothing and started again, I have had very good success doing this in the past so I am hoping the same this time.

David your blooms are just amazing.  The colors you get out of them are so rich!

As for Vin Beaujolais it is an interesting one.  I got mine middle of last year as a really tiny 4".  I immediately planted it in ground (was summer) but it was right next to a sprinkler head that apparently dribbled a lot of water when on and kept the ground by VB really wet which is a problem here with my heavy clay soil.  Long story short it never grew an inch the whole entire year and winter as well.  Then my brain decided to start working and I reworked the sprinkler head so that the soil got no water from it.  Starting this spring it has gone bonkers and has probably quadrupled in size.  It has grown into a really nice ball shape with a ton of branches and buds everywhere now.  Only drawback is the branches are on the thin side so far but let's see if they get thicker as it continues to mature.  

I don't see any need to have pruned it as it has branched very well on it's own - and with a lot of Supernova spray of course.  Maybe though the pruning would help with the branches being thicker.  I don't mind them being thin as all branches and blooms are always presented upright and are well dispersed.

I did recently prune a few branches for some cuttings (which didn't make it on the receiving end due to their thinness) so I will watch to see what those branches do going forward.

Please check the pics I posted on the cultivar topic for VB to see some of my plant shots.  It is pretty current to where it is now.  I'll take a pic of it tomorrow as it is still growing like crazy.

Farmer D