Hidden Valley Hibiscus Forum

This is surely one of my favorites, partly for the amazing growth, I could hardly keep it potted during the summer, but the blooms are spectacular!! I was stunned from the first bloom and every one that opened demanded my attention! The blooms are huge and such bright, vivid colors, so beautiful. Definatly a stand out in my collection and I recommend it very highly!!
Lisa

still waiting on blooms for this cutting, cant wait till it does :)

I pruned the 4' Acapulco gold I got last fall early this spring and all I have to say is wow.  From the two branches I now have 6.  For me here is the real kicker, each of the new branches already have three plus buds forming!  I haven't seen the flowers yet, but already this small plant is shaping up to be very prolific. In fact, the only variety I have of this size that has as many buds is blue ballerina!  I just wanted to share some preliminary experience with is cv.

Excellent results! Kris, what state do you live in?

Charlie

Hi Charlie,

I am currently in CA, more specifically the LA area :) 

Similar to here, then. Places along the Gulf Coast (TX, Louisiana, FL) have much warmer nights then we do here in CA. Hybridizers in FL worry about making crosses when the nights do not go below 70F which is common. I'm just happy when our nights get above 60F!  Warm nights makes a difference to the plants and flowers. They grow faster, get better responses to pruning, and the flowers reach their maximum size when the nights are warm. OTOH, places like northern Ca with warm sunny days and cool to cold summer nights still get a lot of flowers and the colors are usually intense. I recently shipped to Alaska and am very curious how the hibiscus react to 20 hours or more of summer daylight!

Charlie

That would be interesting to see.  It is really fascinating the effect care and weather has on color and size of the bloom.  Now that the weather has warmed up my gator pride has very ruffled flowers and the colors are yellow and lavender.  Early in the spring the flowers were orange and deep purple!  Also my Belle du Jour has had small white flowers with a bright pink eye, but I am sure that this is due to being repotted two weeks ago.  I am curious to see how the flowers will look when I move to Denver in the Fall, with the high altitude and more solar radiation I wonder if they need as much sun exposure as they do here at sea level. 

-Kris

Kris, I meant to ask you more about that Belle de Jour. Your description makes me wonder if you have a mislabeled plant. Did you happen to take a photo of the smaller, "white" flowers? I can understand a smaller than normal flower but not a white one after transplanting. I couple of years ago some unknown small white flowered plant made it into our production by accident and I wonder if this is that one. I thought I had gotten rid of all of these but maybe not. You really should have the real deal - right now the 6 inch pots of Belle du Jour have been putting on a spectacular display, multiple huge flowers. If you don't have a photo of the white flower maybe you can take a photo of the plant and send it to me or post it here. I can sometimes tell from leaves and growth habit which variety it is and would like to confirm that you really have Belle.

Charlie

My AG bloomed for the first time today.  I was blown away by the richness of the color!   The photos on the site just can't capture the beauty of this cv.  The flower was huge, probably 8" across.  It has become my new favorite hib!!

As far as its growth, it grows faster than any of my other cvs.  It does seem to want to grow straight up without branching, but mine responded very well to pruning, creating several new branches on each stem when it was pruned about 8" up from the soil. 

I couldn't agree more. I am still shocked when Acapulco Gold opens new flowers! The relatively small amount of fade in the sun is also a trait I hope to find more of in the future. Thanks for sharing this bloom with us!

Charlie

Wow Jordan!  That is a great bloom!

Thanks!  Another bud popped open today on AG, and it looks like #3 will open tomorrow.  The flowers are so huge there's barely any room on the plant!   :)   I can't wait until this one gets to be a couple years old...  it's going to be outstanding. 

I'm glad your AG is doing well. It does bloom well - even my winter beat up garden plant of it showed off 3 blooms on Monday. I'll try to remember to show this same plant in October after it's been growing all summer.

Charlie

I'll join the club :)

It is officially summer.  It hit 107 yesterday and acapulco gold did not like that one bit.  It decided to disguard all its buds  :-[  So I went ahead and pruned it.  Its not going to get any cooler until about october around here, so I figure I will try and have more branches for blooms by fall.  I went ahead and put the cuttings in root tone and soild, hopefully I will get some cuttings to strike.  Anyone else have this happen with this cv when the weather gets hot?

I bet you get blooms on the new growth before the year is out. The new branches will grow fast in mid-summer - a bit of fertilizer and plenty of water will also help.

Somebody wrote that a local gardening guru was saying don't fertilizer hibiscus in the heat of summer. Not sure where that message is so I will comment on it here. The uptake of water and nutrients is very rapid in hot conditions so it is a good idea to cut back on fertilizer. However, I would not stop applying it, particularly in pots that do not have any natural nutrients in the potting mix. Our greenhouses regularly go over 100F in the summer and I never stop fertilizing. Our plants get a small dose of HVH Special blend with every watering. If there was a problem with doing that I would have seen it long ago.

Charlie

Hi, Helix,

That is exactly what I have done with my Living Legend. We will have fireworks in autumn, when other "summer" varieties will be a bit exhausted by blooming in summer. In 6 years that I have been growing hibiscus, I have realized there are "summer" and "spring-autumn" varieties. It is better to accept that, than trying the impossible. Of course, when you are sure something else is not the problem, or when you are sure that in your particular climate you cannot make the variety bloom in summer.

ciao, Nina

Hi Nina,

I was getting frustrated with acapulco gold and just did it.  Now I have three cutting which are looking really good atm (warm weather seems to be really good for getting cuttings to strike)  And this was a harder prune than what I did at the begining of spring and there are a bunch of green nodes forming everywhere so it looks like it is going to be a alot more full in the next few weeks.  I did the same thing to Blue ballerina and Saffron.  I remember you mentioned that you decided not to get Saffron because of the fact that mine is persnickety.  I think it is still worth having because the flowers are really spectacular.  It might also just be my plant.  I have three cuttings I took, so if those strike, it will be interesting to see if they behave the same way.  Do you have a list of varieties that in your experience are more spring/fall and those that are summer bloomers? 

-Chris   

I just wanted to add, and perhaps this should go in the Acapulco Gold thread, but I've moved AG to the north side of my house that gets early morning and late afternoon sun, but shade during the hottest part of the day.  AG is much happier, not wilting at all in the heat now!

Thats good to hear my AG is in more sun than any other plant, it needs tons of water in that location or it will wilt.  Dragon's Breath is another that hates the heat.  Yellowing leaves due to the hot over 90 days we've had this week.

I've noticed that Acapulco Gold in 6 inch pots can wilt slightly in mid-afternoon but that the plants of it in 5 gallon pots never show that. It seems that this one needs the big root ball and steady supply of water that a larger pot provides, at least if it's in a lot of sun.

Charlie

It sounds like AG needs a large root system to support its rapid growth.  I just keep refilling the tray of water under it and it doesnt wilt in full sun.  Its alot of effort though, since AG drinks so much. 

That would do it, or try one of those self watering pots that Wal-Mart has or had a few years ago. They were typical plastic pots but had a water reservoir built in under the pot that wicked up into the potting mix as it dried out. I grew some super plants in one of these a few years ago. I may have shown it before but what the heck here is an Eva Paoloni in one of the self-watering types.

Charlie

After reading this thread I thought it would be a good idea to add some updated info especially for AG planted in ground.  I do see some differences that would be helpful after growing mine now for over a year and getting phenomenal results.

This CV is by far the fastest and strongest grower I have out of 70+ hibs.  It really likes to be fed A LOT and in return will want more water and tolerate all the sun it can get.  My AG is in a really sunny spot getting sun from early morning to pretty much sunset.  It dropped a lot of buds (in fact most of them) during it's first growth spurt of spring.  Also had a hefty case of thrips but one spraying of neem oil (with some insecticide) and religious picking up of all dropped buds everyday has worked well to eliminate them.  

My AG is now over 4 feet tall (got last year as a 4" baby in April) and is growing by the day.  I was going to prune it down a lot to get a nice full bush but instead have opted to spray it daily with Supernova and it has responded amazingly well.  I have new branch growth everywhere including at the bottom of the plant which is where it needs it the most.  Again of all my hibs this one has responded best to SN spraying too.

It still drops quite a few buds but it has so many (60+) on avg that there is always a few blooming at once.  In my opinion this CV needs to get big and do it's thing.  Evidence of this was in late May while out of town for 2 weeks it didn't get much water, dried out somewhat from a few wind events and even tip over 30 degrees when the dry soil around it couldn't hold it upright any longer while being ravaged by thrips.  Long story short it has bounced back very quickly with the HVH booster making a big difference by allowing it to drink up a lot more water and nutrients.  

This plant just shows it strength all the time if you let it grow.  Like all plants once it gets used to a certain spot and gets going don't change things up on it.  If you can find a spot that has a consistent environment AG will take off and then some.

Farmer D

Good piece that Darren, to me Acapulco Gold epitomizes what a Tropical Hibiscus should be; big bright and beautiful and loves the sun. I also now have a nice varied cv collection but without a doubt every single visitor to my garden will always pick AG as there favorite.

More pics of AG blooms...

Farmer D

More AG pics....

Farmer D

and more....

Farmer D

Of all the cv's Acapulco Gold is about the only one where I much prefer the color it fades to rather than its opening color.

I thought I'd post some more pics of the plant in it's full glory.  Today there is 10 full size blooms.  We are just finishing up our first heat wave of about a week.  AG seems to like the heat, then again it seems to like almost everything.

It just hit the 5 foot mark which again is incredible since I've only had it since last April as a little 1 footer with half dozen leaves.  I will however take back that this is the fastest growing CV as my baby Some Like It Hot is growing faster than AG but the bush is not nearly as nice (lanky and thinner branches).

(http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m613/darreneminian/AcapulcoGoldPlant8-29.jpg)

(http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m613/darreneminian/AcapulcoGoldProfusion8-29.jpg)

Farmer D

more blooms to share

Farmer D

lots of twins shots

Farmer D

some more

Farmer D

There are hibiscus and then there is Acapulco Gold. Stunning large blooms that are super bright and can be seen a block away on a terrific bush that branches like crazy and is super easy to grow once it gets going. But the thing that sets it apart is it's ability to bloom like no other. It is my all time record holder for blooms in one day. AG actually had over 100 blooms open on one day back on 9/20/2015. I didn't even think this was possible - it was insane, I took dozens of photos and to this day that record still stands. The bush at the time was huge, so much so that you couldn't show all the blooms at once. So three different sides had to be photographed separately to document this amazing show.

Oh yeah, if you don't have it you have to have it in your collection.

Farmer D

Farmer D