Hidden Valley Hibiscus Forum

Mediterranean climate, zone 9b:

I have had this plant for two years. It grows fast, has very thick branches, giant glossy leaves, and makes a nice bush. It blooms profusely, with perfect, giant (22-23 cm/ 8.5 inches), upward blooms that lasts from 2-5 days, depending on the temperature. When it blooms, it really dominates my greenhouse, because the blooms are so big and brilliant. I like it enourmously.

In my climate, it has a fault, though: it discards buds in summer, so it usually starts blooming only in fall.
At this moment, since the temps are about 10-15C /50-59F, the blooms are smaller, about 17cm/6-6.5 inches. So I consider this variety an excellent autumn variety. I suppose it can bloom well in spring, too, but I always prune it too late and the first buds catch the first spring heats.

Update as of July, 2010:

This year, I have managed to make bloom the previous "bud droppers", Flameball and Living Legned. Both bloom rather well this summer,although this summer is even hotter in my greenhouse than the previous summers.
The difference is that they have more shade, more humidity and that they have been somewhat bud pruned, ie I have removed some of the buds, let's say about  one third.
 

Here are the few pictures, the last one showing how it changes color in late winter;

s

Wow, Nina, that winter photo of Living Legend is a real surprise! It's so neat to see how our many different growing conditions can change the flowers.

Please let us know next summer if you still get bud drop on this variety. In our yard it blooms continually all summer but the temperatures are in the 80's and 90's F (27-35C) and your greenhouse temperature probably rises to over 100F (38C). I have also seen hibiscus perform in unusual ways for a season and then return to normal with no explanations, so we will see if this is one of those times.

You also mentioned pruning in spring. This is the normal practice but with your greenhouse you might be able to prune in fall with good results and earlier flowers. Last year I needed wood from Saffron and we had a big gorgeous Saffron in the yard so I cut the wood (pruning, in effect) in the fall. Afterwards, the Saffron put on a very small amount of new growth before winter and that new growth was not killed by the few light freezes we had last winter. When spring came it was way ahead of the other plants and bushed out beautifully. Maybe we were lucky, but I did it again this year so we shall find out.

Thanks for showing your photos of Living Legend!

Charlie

I got one of these at a nursery in Los Angeles about 4 years ago. It was my first one of the special hibiscus, i already had a red a pink and a yellow old fashioned type hibiscus. I bought it because it was blooming at the nursery, incredible big flower unlike any hibiscus I ever saw!  I snapped it up, took it home, and planted it in a spot that gets sun all morning in summer but then is mostly shaded in the afternoon.

Every year it has grown about a foot, but 2 winters ago it took a hit from a seriously cold freeze one night in January. The next summer I had to cut it back to about half the size it was before because the branches died at the top. That turned out to be a good thing anyway because it grew back with more branches and each branch bloomed before the summer was out!  Now it is about the same size it was before the freeze but is fuller and looks nicer. This variety has big, fine leaves, if you like foliage.

The flowers are the thing though. I still love em because I can see them from the house and when I first walk out into the back yard. They are HUGE - and such a strong color. Photos don't do Living Legend justice, in my opinion. I read the other person's problem with no flowers in the hot summer (greenhouse?) but I have to say that in our area it is not so hot that it does this. Living Legend blooms from about May until Dec - still blooming right now although this cold rain storm we are having might be the end for the year. The only problem I had with flowers on LL is when all my hibiscus had thrips. I followed the HVH advice and got rid of them after a couple of sprays with spinosad.

I grow lots of tropical plants but the new hibiscus varieties have become my favorite because they are so showy - nothing comes close to their colors-just eye candy for a tropical flower junkie like me!!!

It is Christmas time and LL has still been blooming. One of the rare cultivars (among my several hundred ones) that opens perfectly in this near freezing night temperatures.

I have the same effect during winter here in Florida that Nina's picture showed. Right now Living Legend is smallish and almost all yellow/white with a small red eye.

ART

It is winter, a lot of near freezing nights...My poor pruned LL...but soon it will regain its splendour, I hope!

I just got a 4' LL and just transplanted it into a 7' pot.  The new growth (green) on the plant is about 2 inches, how long should I wait before I can pinch the top to promote branching?  It is just a single stem, so I would like to promote more branching, so I will get more blooms:)

Go ahead and pinch the tip now, Helix. I usually make that first pinch before we ship so the branching will get a head start. Living Legend will not branch much without pinching and later on pruning.

Chariie

I have managed to root a few  cuttings of LL, which is a proof it roots easily..I am not good at rooting at all. I wonder how they will develop.

Besides, I have put my three big plants in the shade, outside the greenhouse, to see if they will discard buds in summer in such conditions. So far, they look fine, full of buds, some very fat buds, I will let you know what happens next.

I went ahead and did that today, cant wait for branches and blooms.  Thank you for the advice!

-Chris

Hi Nina, that sounds like a good idea. Please let us know how they do. If they don't bloom a lot you could also move them into more sunlight. My garden Living Legend is in full sun all day long and never stops blooming in summer. I give it a lot of water, daily when it's hot, but the temperatures here are usually a daytime high of between 80 and 95F (26 to 35C) with not too many days going above 90F (32C). If your highs are higher the shade would help but my opinion is that it is water stress (not enough water) that stops most hibiscus from blooming in the heat of summer.

Charlie

My three old LL plants are outside in shade, they get only the late afternoon sun and they are full of buds. I am keeping my fingers crossed that they will not drop.

And several cuttings put to root in about March, have been well rooted! This is a real surprise, I have had so far so little success in rooting modern hybrids. Now to see how they will develop.

Yes, I always grow Living Legend on its own roots. I prefer to grow hibiscus on their own roots but some need grafting and are worthwhile enough to propagate that way.

Good luck with the old and new LL!

Charlie

The report so far: one bud discarded, one bloomed.
But, could a bloom be more perfect than this:

Nice one, Nina! The round and flat form of LL is one of my favorite things about this variety. Here's hoping more buds open than drop this year!

Charlie

They keep opening! I am very happy!
The peak heat is still not on, let us hope for the best.

Hi Charlie, I'm also having some bud drop issues with Living Legend as well as a few others namely First Lady and Blonde Ambition. All my plants are growing in containers in a small greenhouse which has been getting into the mid 90s in the afternoon lately. The humidity has also been quite low till recently so I assume the bud dropping is due to stress. I've been getting one good bloom out of about every 4 buds on the LL and only 1 bloom out of 7 buds on the First Lady. Frustrating to say the least since several other plants are blooming nicely. Anyway the latest LL bloom was interesting with the petaloids which I haven't seen before on this plant. I'll try to post a picture but I haven't had any luck doing that yet.

Dave

Hi, Dave,

Very beautiful bloom.



My greenhouse is very hot, and very, very humid in the summer, and LL did not like that last year.

When Living Legend is protected from thrips, it always blooms like crazy around here. Everyone who grows hibiscus should find a source for the low toxicity, approved for organic food growers pesticide called spinosad and keep it handy. When bud drop starts, spray the buds and tops and see if it does not make a difference. More often than not, it will.

Below are a couple of photos of Living Legend plants blooming well in full sun summer outdoors and in a very hot and humid summer greenhouse. Granted these are larger plants at least 4 years old, but as they show LL can be a massive bloomer when insects are kept out of the buds.

Charlie

WOW!!! Charlie, I have never seen so many blooms at once on a hib as there are on the Living Legend you posted!  I will be sure to look into the organic pesticide.  I haven't had an issue with bud drop *yet* with any of your cv's.  I do have a Fiery Furnace that I got at the end of April that's dropped a couple.  So far I have chalked it up to stress, as it got miserably hot all of a sudden here in the bay area.  Crossing my fingers that it resolves itself.

I'm even more thrilled now that I got a 4" LL from you guys in the mail a couple of weeks ago.  Now I really can't wait for it to get bigger.  :)

Charlie, really an amazing, amazing bush!!!!!!!!!!

Nina, I was thinking about the way your hibiscus react to your greenhouse in summer heat that is different than what I would expect. Do you add any shade during summer? Shade cloth or shade paint for the top? All the growth factors operate together. Heat and sunlight and water and humidity are all interrelated. If one goes way up others must compensate.

What I am saying is that when the temperature goes way up it is necessary to lower the amount of sunlight and increase the water for the growth conditions to remain ideal. If both temperature and sunlight increase the amount of stress on the plants changes a lot. That would explain the bud drop and other effects on the flowers of some varieties inside the greenhouse. 

One of the best things about hanging some 50 percent shade cloth in summer is that it is so much more pleasant for people to work in the greenhouse!

Just a thought about this hibiscus mystery.

Charlie

This year, the hibs in my greenhouse enjoy under palm trees leaves ...which are an excelent heat isolation and gives a good sun protection, too. ...They have all the comfort, they just have to behave themselves!

Aha!  That sounds so nicely tropical....

I wish you and them the best success this summer.

Charlie

Not good news. As soon as the real heat has started, LL has started discarding all the buds. I will not let her produce buds any more, I have pinched all the branches and she will just have time to form new branches and new buds till autumn. And then, you will witness a festival of those perfect glossy blooms.

ciao, N

Our real heat has just started here, too. In contrast, my big outdoor bush of Living Legend has just started blooming for the year. I sprayed the whole garden for thrips twice in the last week and now the flowers are coming. Before I sprayed we were losing 10 buds for every flower and now it seems to be down to about 2 buds lost for every flower. After the next spray that will be down to 1 bud lost for every 2 flowers and if I keep up the spraying after that we will only lose the occasional bud.

Thrips populations respond to weather, too, and dramatically increase as the weather warms up. Just because they are hard to see does not mean they are not there. One must spray for them with the right pesticides or they will cause massive loss of buds and scratch up a bunch of flowers that do open. American brands of pesticides that work on thrips are Spinosad, Orthene (acephate), Avid, and Pylon. The first 2 are available to anyone and work the best, anyway.

Charlie